The Apprentice
by HeyBats
Summary: With Kara and J'onn out of the League, the Inner Council invites Galatea to redeem herself by serving as Diana's Apprentice.
1. ReBoot

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Chapter #1 – Re-boot 

The Inner Council finally convened for its first meeting since Darkiac's invasion three weeks before. The term was coined by Lois Lane when she'd witnessed the reincorporated being smash her company's office building to pieces during his rampage against Superman.

Since the original members had expanded the League, they'd tentatively agreed on meeting at least once a week to discuss the welfare of the League. While the meetings were primarily focused on strategic planning against identified threats and criminals known to be on the loose, the more mundane tasks regarding recruitment, operations and logistics popped were also discussed.

Given the magnitude of the destruction that Darkiac's forces had inflicted across the globe, and the subsequent ensuing days they'd wasted trying to capture the remaining at-large members of the Secret Society, the senior members of the team had been unable to convene for a meeting for more than three weeks.

Based on their experience, the Leaguers had no doubt the agenda would be full.

Superman, Shayera, John Stewart and Flash were all waiting in their regular chairs when Diana and Batman entered the room. Their teammates nodded in their direction but remained seated, content to exchange small talk and gossip until the meeting came to order. They'd never bothered to establish parliamentary procedure as either Superman or Batman would typically lead the agenda, depending on the magnitude of the issues involved. Batman was about to open his mouth to start the meeting when the door behind them opened, revealing the presence of J'onn J'onnz, the Martian Manhunter.

Diana and Flash sprang out of their seats, simultaneously taking the Martian in a collective embrace. The others were more reserved in their welcome, but their expressions told the Martian that he'd been missed by all.

They returned to their seats moments later, all staring at J'onn in the hope that he would re-take his seat. He remained standing in front of them however, and the room suddenly filled with tension that even a non-telepath could sense.

"I take it that your sabbatical is not yet finished," Batman surmised, cutting to the chase. "Any idea on when we might see you back full-time?"

The Martian shook his head. "As it was, I struggled whether or not I should assist you when Darkseid's forces attacked. If I struggled to help then, I cannot in all honesty come back to the League…"

"Even as a reserve?" Superman interrupted.

"…Even as a reserve," J'onn concluded. "But I promise to monitor world events. If there is a cause for my return, I will be in touch. Otherwise, I wish you well."

He turned and strode out of the room, leaving them all them stunned.

Superman finally broke the silence as they contemplated the news. "Even with half of the Secret Society dead from Darkseid's attack, we're going to have our hands full trying to capture the rest of them. We need more muscle now that J'onn and Kara aren't available. I didn't think it was an issue when Kara stayed with the Legion, but I still wonder whether we could have beat back Darkseid's invasion without the help of the Secret Society."

"Should we ask Captain Marvel to rejoin?" Diana suggested. "Perhaps if we tried another approach, he would hear us out."

"He won't return any of our calls," Shayera replied dubiously. She turned to face Superman. "Let's face it, that fight you two had is something he's not going to get over anytime soon. After all, you destroyed an entire city."

Superman's jaw tightened as he contemplated a retort, but he stayed silent. There was nothing that he really could say. Though Batman had proved Luthor had engineered the epic between the two of them, the League's most visible critics were still citing the destruction of Lex Luthor's city as the most visible example of the dangers of metahumans losing control.

"We have a higher priority," Batman interjected. "We haven't dealt with it, but we have to face the fact that, with a brief interlude, we've had an even number of voting Council members since we expanded the League. If Lantern hadn't abstained on Shayera's expulsion vote, the resulting stalemate would have ultimately forced us to disband. We need to break the tie."

"So says the man who ignored our vote when we turned ourselves in for destroying Cadmus' headquarters," Shayera shot back. "Aren't you officially a part-time member? Or is that part-time, all-the-time?"

Batman ignored the jibe while the rest of the team enjoyed a chuckle. "We had the luxury of waiting for you to re-take your seat, but if J'onn is taking an extended leave of absence, we're going to have to move somebody into his chair. Thoughts?"

"Aquaman," Superman replied without hesitation. "It's obvious."

"Not so obvious to me," Diana replied. "Or did you not notice that he only shows up for missions where he perceives there to be a threat against Atlantis? I'd like to bring up a full-time member who is committed to protecting the entire population, not just water dwellers."

"Point taken," Lantern replied. He leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful expression. "Like J'onn, how about an off-world member. Orion or maybe Mr. Miracle?"

"Orion is worse with group dynamics than Batman," Diana replied with a grin. "And Scott Free is still a reserve member. It doesn't make any sense to me to by-pass the active members, especially since the two of them will be spending months cleaning up New Genesis after Darkseid's attack. How about a woman? Black Canary, or maybe Zatanna? A sorcerer on the Council would be a great asset for us."

"I like the fishnet angles on both," Flash murmured dreamily, then he sat forward in his chair. "But how 'bout Fire?"

"Fire's a bit short on experience as a group leader," Batman replied, then turned his gaze at Shayera. "And despite numerous examples to the contrary, the League was not established as a dating service."

"As if we're the only ones who've taken advantage of the…benefits of joining the League," Shayera snorted. "Look hard in the mirror sometime. It takes one to know one."

Batman swiveled in his chair and stared hard at Lantern, trying to read his expression. He'd shared a few confidences with Lantern, but it was impossible to ascertain how much John had told Shayera about his interactions with Diana. Batman shifted his gaze to Shayera, who stared back with a 'Who me?' expression on her face. She finally wore down under his gaze, then alternately batted her eyelashes at Diana and Batman. Lantern laughed at the insinuation, but wisely remained silent.

Diana and Batman stared at each other, embarrassed by Shayera's implication that there was more going on between them than being co-workers. Diana's expression suddenly turned from embarrassed to hostile as she returned Shayera's gaze. Superman decided to intervene before a war between the two couples (official or not) broke out on top of the table.

"If not Aquaman, how about Mr. Terrific? He stepped right in as duty officer when J'onn went on sabbatical. He's smart, capable, and a full time member."

"The same can be said of Green Arrow and Steel," Flash replied.

"Suffice to say, we have a lot of candidates to review," Diana agreed, then turned to Batman. "Why don't you and I put together a dossier on the candidates we've discussed? We'll review the after-action reports where they served as team leaders, then interview some of the members they've worked with. It should only take a week or two, then we can make our recommendations next week."

"Fine," Superman replied, impatience evident in his voice. "Back to the original point. Without Supergirl, J'onn and Captain Marvel, we only have two 'A' powered members on our team. Diana and I are stretched thin enough as it is. We need to add more muscle to the team so we can have a day off every once in awhile."

"Who did you have in mind?" Flash asked. "There's no one left."

Superman hesitated before finally unleashing the surprise. "What about Galatea?"

His suggestion was met with an immediate chorus of hostility and objection, but Superman patiently waited until his teammates quieted down. By their expressions alone, there was no doubt in his mind that his idea faced an uphill battle.

"At least think about it," he pleaded. "It makes sense from a power perspective -- she obviously meets the requirements. More important, her rehabilitation, both physical and psychological, is complete. From the reports I've read, Cadmus brainwashed her the same way they conditioned Doomsday to hate the League. They've spent months re-conditioning her. She knows we're not her enemy. Let's give her a chance to redeem herself."

"Doomsday swore he'd never stop until he killed you," Shayera replied. "If they conditioned her the same way as Doomsday, how can you be sure that her reconditioning isn't just an act so that she can carry out her original mission to destroy us?"

"I can't, but I'd like to try," Superman replied. "But I still believe in second chances. I never considered the idea when Kara was on the team, but now that she's gone, I think its time we stopped holding a grudge against somebody who is blameless for her background.."

"Easy for you to say, but what about the rest of us?" Lantern argued. "She almost killed Kara and Steel, then she tried to blow up the Watchtower and most of the League."

"I understand your reservations, John. I really do, but as a man who's been brainwashed, I can emphathize. I think Galatea deserves a chance to be a productive member of the League. If we keep her locked up in Belle Reeve, eventually she's going to go rogue. I'd like to avoid that. This way, we'll be able to keep close tabs on her."

"Isn't there a third option you haven't considered?" Lantern asked, the doubt on his face evident to the rest of his teammates.

"The Phantom Zone," Shayera whispered, drawing her own conclusion of what Lantern was really suggesting.

"That's not ever going to be an option again, not while I'm part of the League," Batman interjected. "So we do everything in our power to ensure that she becomes a productive member. But there's a catch. The other members will never accept her unless one of us – and I mean one of us in this room - is watching her every move, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week."

The room was silent for a moment as they digested the magnitude of what he was suggesting, then Diana spoke up.

"I'll do it."

"You will?" Batman asked.

"What else do I have to occupy my time?" Diana replied, averting his gaze when she spoke. "Besides, if she does go rogue, with the exception of Superman, I'm the only one who can stop her."

"You don't know that," Flash interrupted.

"After what she did to the rest of us in the metabrawl, I'll take odds on Diana," Shayera replied. "Galatea will be treated like an outcast by the rest of the League. I'm somewhat familiar with that particular role, so I'll try and pitch in and help out where I can."

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Diana and Superman slowly trailed the three-armed guards into the deepest levels of the prison. She had no idea how deep under the surface they were, but the elevator ride alone had taken two minutes to reach their current level. They'd passed through three series of one-foot thick, steel doors that individually looked to be capable of surviving a direct nuclear blast, all powered by hydraulic systems that rivaled the ones on the Watchtower.

"So this is where General Eiling wanted to lock us up?" Diana speculated as the last door closed behind them.

"Looks like it. It's an interesting idea, converting a presidential nuclear fall-out shelter into an underground prison," Superman replied. "I'd assume this is where the next generation of criminals will be kept, that is, until they think of something else."

"We're here," the senior guard interrupted. He leaned in to stare at a black orb next to the final door. As before, a retinal scan confirmed that he was cleared to enter the facility. Moments later, the door swung back, hinges groaning under the strain of the door's massive weight. As the door pushed back, it revealed a small cell-block containing only ten cells, all bathed in red light in order to deny the lone occupant of her strength.

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Superman blinked with surprise as the overhead lights in the hallway above them suddenly shifted from white to red light. As his eyes adjusted to the change, he spied a lone female perched on a cot in the first prison cell to the right. The other cells were empty. He drew in a sharp breath to steady himself as Galatea stood and faced them.

Clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, she looked different from the last time he'd seen her. He'd been planet-side in a battle with 'Luthor-Iac,' the cyborg merger of Lex and Brainiac. While the Inner Council ultimately defeated the Luthor-Iac, during that battle, Galatea had led the Cadmus invasion of the Watchtower with the other genetically engineered clones – the Ultimen. Kara and Steel had fought Galatea to a draw, finally incapacitating Kara's older clone with a power surge from the reactor's main power conduit. The rest of the League dispatched the Ultimen, leaving the Watchtower in shambles.

They left Galatea for dead, desperately scrambling to maintain the Watchtower's hull integrity. Six hours later, after successfully managing to maintain the Watchtower's humanoid-friendly atmosphere, Steel and Huntress had found Galatea's body in the rubble of the engineering section. Her uniform was charred and her hair had been fried from the power surge, but amazingly enough, she'd displayed a faint pulse. Steel had placed Galatea under restraints, then moved her under a concentrated sun bed that he'd built for Superman and Kara to treat kryptonite poisoning, hoping its effects would revive Galatea.

Superman and Kara had stopped by to monitor Galatea's recovery two days later, but there seemed to be no hope as she hadn't displayed any signs of higher-level brain activity. With the repair of the Watchtower and so many other issues to occupy their time, the Council had never discussed her future disposition until Cadmus suddenly demanded her repatriation. Nobody in the Inner Council had initially objected to her return, all too aware that Kara's clone was a sensitive topic, especially for Superman. Batman had intervened, negotiating two caveats. The first had been that Galatea be held in a neutral facility not controlled by Cadmus or the League, the second, that she'd be restrained under red-sunlamps which would quickly deprive her of her powers.

Now that relations between the two camps had thawed, Cadmus had consented to the League's request to release Galatea into their custody. Superman knew that their request had been a point of relief for Cadmus, especially given their failure to properly dispose of Doomsday.

As she stared at him with a vacant expression that reminded him of the documentaries he'd seen of the 'thousand yard stare' that many war veterans had for years after their return from battle, Superman wondered whether he'd made the right choice in sponsoring her parole.

Despite his misgivings, a sentimental part of him responded to her familiar face. It was like he'd just traveled ten years into the future to meet what Kara would look like as a mature woman. Completing the effect, Galatea had elected to grow her hair longer, making the resemblance to Kara much more startling.

He shook his head in wonder at the magnitude of Cadmus's plan to clone his cousin as a counterbalance to the League, then allowed himself a moment to study her surroundings. The cell was not unlike those he'd seen in Riker's Island and other prisons around Metropolis, the only difference being the red sunlamps overhead. From personal experience, he knew those lamps would render him completely powerless within a week.

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Wonder Woman patiently waited for him to make an introduction as they stood in the hallway outside the cell, but he remained transfixed, silently staring at Kara's clone. She sensed his hesitation and impatient to wait any longer, strode forward, extending her hand in greeting once the cell-door swung open. "Hello, Galatea. I am Diana."

"Thought you went by Wonder Woman," Galatea muttered, a spirit of defiance evident despite the conditions of her harsh enclosure. She didn't return the handshake.

Diana was expecting her reaction, and remained nonplussed at the sleight. "You and I will be spending some time together, so why don't you call me Diana?"

"Why? Did they send you down here to rot next to me?"

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Superman winced at the bitterness in her voice, but he could empathize with her plight. "We've come to offer you a release from prison, and conditional membership in the Justice League."

By her expression, he could tell that she was surprised by the offer. "My membership is conditional on what?"

"Your behavior," Diana replied.

"Who gets the final say on my behavior?"

"Ultimately, the Inner Council will make the final determination, but Diana will be serving as your trainer, so she'll have a lot of input into the matter."

"Then you're my new best friend," Galatea replied, staring at Diana. "Do I get a uniform like yours?"

Diana turned to Superman. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

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The two technicians at the control station received Superman's order for the beam-out with bored indifference – the novelty of watching superheroes come and go on the Watchtower had long ago ceased to be interesting. The computer identified two of the incoming electronic signatures as belonging to Superman and Wonder Woman, meaning whoever was beaming up with them was there for a reason.

They didn't expect Galatea standing between them when the two superheroes materialized on the pad. By instinct, one of the technicians instantly dropped a containment beam around Galatea, securing her in the confines of an energy field.

Superman and Wonder Woman started to step away from the transporter pad, then checked themselves when the sudden blare of warning lights and horns informed them that their companion had been restrained.

"Take down the containment field," Superman commanded. "She's with us."

The senior technician hesitated, but the stern look on Superman's face told him not to debate the issue. Despite his boy-scout image, the technicians had learned the hard way that Superman had a temper, and did not suffer fools gladly.

"Sorry for the mix-up," the technician replied. "It's protocol, after all."

The energy field suddenly dissipated as quickly as it had formed. Galatea shot a stern look at the technicians, then joined Superman and Wonder Woman on the steps leading to the Monitor Womb. She paused to take in the view, marveling at the grandeur of the view below. The Watchtower was passing over the Mediterranean in its orbit, and Ibiza glowed like a jewel below them.

"I thought you'd seen the view," Diana observed.

"My last visit was a little…rushed," Galatea replied with a smirk. "I didn't have time to enjoy it."

"Plenty of time for that later," Diana replied. "Let's get you a Comm. Link, then see if we can find you something to wear."

"Prison jumpsuits aren't regulation for League membership?"

Diana smiled, but shook her head. "I think we can find you something that suits you a little better." She nodded at the view. "You ready?"

Galatea hesitated a moment, reluctant to be rushed away. "Sorry," she murmured. "It's just that after being cooped up in a prison cell for six months, looking at anything other than an empty jail cell is almost too much. It doesn't get any better than this."

They allowed her a moment to drink in the view, then the rotation of the Watchtower shifted their view toward the sun. The portholes automatically polarized to protect the inhabitants from the harsh glare of the sunlight, but Galatea moved forward, bathing herself in the sun's rays.

Superman noticed what she was doing. "Getting a little re-charge?"

She nodded, flexing her muscles as her body soaked up the yellow sun's solar radiation like a sponge. "How long will it take until I'm at full power?"

"How did it happen for you the first time?" Diana inquired, curious about the physiology of her Kryptonian companions.

"My first memory is waking up in Doctor Hamilton's laboratory under a sunlamp," Galatea replied, a trace of bitterness in her voice. "My powers were already at full strength."

"That must have been an awkward adjustment," Superman sympathized.

She nodded. "It took me a few weeks to adjust my strength levels so I wouldn't break everything in the lab when I touched it."

"You should start to feel some of the effects immediately," he replied. "Hearing comes first, then heat and x-ray vision. Strength and speed came along as a package for me as a teenager. Let's see, what else? Flight will come last….No, I forgot. Freeze breath happened when I was an adult."

"Freeze breath?"

"Yeah, I can freeze things by blowing on them," Superman admitted. "There's never much of a need for it, but you never know."

"I don't think I ever developed that particular power," Galatea replied, her brow furrowed. "Maybe it's a guy thing."

"I'm going to head back to Metropolis and attend to some personal matters," Superman interjected. Galatea turned and cocked her head at him in a way that was so familiar that it almost floored him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied quickly, but he decided to relent and share a confidence with her, knowing that these crucial first few hours would likely shape her outlook on the League for the rest of her life. "It's just that, well, you looked a lot like Kara there for a moment."

"Being a genetic twin might have something to do with that," she replied.

"I know, but you're still different. Older. More mature."

"Uh huh," she replied dubiously, then looked around the Watchtower. "Just where is Kara anyway? I know that I have a lot to apologize for, so we might as well start there."

"About a month ago, Kara was summoned by the Legion of Superheroes to help fight an enemy. She never came back," Superman noted.

Galatea's eyes went wide with shock. "She's dead? Who is the Legion?"

"No, she's not dead," Diana reassured her. "The Legion exists in the 30th century. Sort of a future Justice League. After the mission was over, she realized that she liked a boy she'd met, so she decided to stay."

"She stayed for a boy?" Galatea interrupted. "I shared dreams with her for months. I knew she was a little boy-crazy, but I never would have guessed that she would have stayed in the future for one she'd just met. Now I won't get a chance to apologize."

"If it's any consolation, I don't think she ever took your role in the assault personally," Superman replied. "Once we learned how Cadmus had cloned and conditioned you to hate the League, Kara felt terrible. She had nightmares about what she and Steel did to you for weeks. Said it was like chopping off her own arm."

"Having been on the receiving end of that power coupling, I can tell you it was worse than that," Galatea replied, a hint of remorse evident on her face. "What about Steel? How's he doing?"

"He's fine. All things considered, his armor held up pretty well."

"Then he's on the top of my list," she replied, then her brow furrowed. "Since Kara's gone, would it be possible to remove my neural inhibitor? Professor Hamilton implanted it after he found out that Kara and I shared a dream link, but I'd rather have it taken out."

"That will require surgery. We'll probably have to keep you under a red sunlamp for a few more days so that your skin doesn't become impenetrable," Superman mused. "We'll see what we can do, but I can't promise anything."

"In that case I'll skip it. I'd rather not see a red sun lamp again as long as I live."

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"So this is all it takes?" Galatea asked, staring at the Comm Link. "Do I have to trigger it every time I want to open a door?"

"No," Diana grinned, then helped secure it in Galatea's left ear until it was comfortably positioned. Diana motioned for the other woman to follow, and they started walking down one of the long, circular corridors that would take them back to the elevators. "It will provide automatic access for all non-restricted parts of the Watchtower."

"What's restricted?"

"Certain critical engineering, communication and computer rooms that we don't want people to tamper with."

"Who's 'we'?"

"The Inner Council," Diana answered patiently. "Myself, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash and Shayera. The original members of the League. That is to say, with the exception of J'onn J'onnz, who is currently on sabbatical."

"What's he doing on sabbatical?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Diana replied. "Is it really all that important?"

Galatea's expression immediately went from bright to downcast. She looked away from Diana, staring absently at the bulkhead that demised the corridor from the elevator. "I'm sorry. I've been locked up for six months. I guess I'm babbling.

Diana immediately regretted snapping at her. They stepped into the elevator, then Diana barked a command at the computer to take them down to logistical support. "My fault. I'm not used to serving as a mentor for new recruits. You'll have to be patient with me while I get used to working with somebody on a full-time basis."

"I would have thought this was by now," Galatea replied. "Didn't you spend a lot of time training others when you expanded the League?"

"Not really," Diana admitted. "J'onn is a telepath, so he just got all of the new members together in the same room, and telepathically transmitted everything they needed to know right into their heads. It saved us weeks. Now that he's on a sabbatical, we have to do it the old fashioned way."

"I'm not sure after what Kara and I went through – sharing each other's dreams that is – that I would ever want somebody in my head again," Galatea replied with a shiver.

The elevator door opened and they emerged onto a floor that was empty.

Galatea peered around the hallways. "What's down here?"

"Officially we call it logistical support, but everybody in the League calls it 'the changing room'," Diana replied, then ushered her companion through the doorway. An empty desk at a reception area had a sign that asked visitors to press a buzzer. Diana did so, then sat down to wait.

"All the members already had their costumes when we recruited them, but Batman got a little paranoid when he found out that Black Canary was wearing flammable nylons. Two days later, a seamstress showed up to replicate any costumes that weren't made of bulletproof and flameproof material. Now, if any of our costumes are damaged, we bring them back here for repair. It saves our members a lot of time as they don't have to spend their free time sewing at home."

Galatea nodded at the wisdom of outsourcing this job to a professional. "Definitely makes a lot of sense. What's her name?"

"My name is Edna," a cheerful voice replied from the doorway. "How can I help?"

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The speed of the costume design process had amazed Galatea. When they'd sat down to discuss her costume, Edna had showed the two women some preliminary sketches she'd come up with, which were all female variations of the blue costume worn by Superman. Galatea had quickly dismissed all of the ideas out of hand, adamant in her refusal to be considered part of Superman's extended family. Exasperated, Edna finally had asked her if she had any suggestions. When Galatea told her what kind of costume she had in mind, Edna had pulled a few still-screen images from the security database with a raised eyebrow.

Diana had picked up on Edna's doubts. "People might associate that outfit with the old Galatea."

Galatea remained steadfast in her refusal. "I've only been up here for two hours and I've gotten nasty looks from half of the Leaguers and almost all of the support staff. They know who I am and what I've done, so why waste time pretending that I'm somebody else? I'm not Kara and I'm not Superman's cousin, so parading around in an outfit that reminds everybody else of her is only going to look like some pathetic attempt to replace her."

Edna had finally relented, and ordered Galatea to strip out of the prison jumpsuit. She stood nude on a circular platform where a laser performed a three-dimensional mapping of her body, then Edna threw her a bathrobe to cover up.

Diana and Galatea studied the monitor with interest as Edna ticked off the measurements. "Let's see, what do we have here. Height? Five-feet, eight inches. Weight? 120 pounds. Bust? 38DD? What is it about you full-figured gals in the League? Diana, are you sure you don't want to just lend her your armor? I think she's the only one in the League that could step right into it without an alteration."

"I see your point," Diana replied with a mock scowl. "Don't be jealous, Edna."

"Whatever you say, dear," Edna replied. "They create anotherset of issues for you to deal with." She turned then initiated a computer aided design software to program the machine to produce the desired garments. A minute later the machine had spit out the costume.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to wear something with a longer cut?" Edna asked, holding up the garment to inspect her work. "That outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination."

"Thank you, but no," Galatea replied cheerfully as she wiggled into the costume, an exact replica of the one she'd worn months before when she'd led Cadmus' invasion of the Watchtower. "This one will do just fine."

Diana nodded with approval, then a thought came to her. "By the way, do you have any thoughts on a name, or do you just want to go by Galatea?"

Galatea mused on the question for a minute, but couldn't reach a decision. "How did you get the name Wonder Woman?"

"A few weeks after we formed the League, I did a press interview to reassure the public that there wasn't going to be an invasion of Amazons right behind me. The headline on the paper the next day had 'Wonder Woman' in big letters. I prefer Diana, but the name stuck."

"I'd rather not leave my name to some enterprising reporter," Galatea replied with a frown, then a giggle escaped from her throat.

"What is it?"

"I was just thinking about the irony of the situation. Six months ago I lead Cadmus' invasion army in an attempt to destroy the Watchtower, and would have succeeded if Kara hadn't electrocuted me with the main reactor line. All that power almost killed me."

"Your point?"

"How about Power Girl?" Galatea mused. "It kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it?"

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**Continuity Disclosure: **

**(Taken directly from Wikipedia) In the DC Animated Universe, Galatea (or Tea, for short) is the name of an age-accelerated clone of Supergirl, created by Professor Hamilton and Project Cadmus on JLU. (It was the second such episode where the idea of cloning either Superman or Supergirl was used, as Lex Luthor had attempted to clone Superman and have the clone do his bidding. The Superman clone was a failure though, as the clone mutated into Bizarro).**

**The episode in which Galatea debuts, "Fearful Symmetry" she was designed specifically as a countermeasure to Superman and Supergirl were they ever to go rogue. Furthermore, Galatea's personality was influenced to ensure she performed her duties with a sociopathic relish. However, the shared genetic nature of the girls inadvertently created a psychic link in which Supergirl experienced Galatea's actions in dreams, while Galatea suffered sleepless nights because of Supergirl's subconscious moral restraints on her own actions.**

**Galatea decided to kill those aware of her creation in positions to expose her, in part to draw Supergirl out. Eventually, the twins fought until Project Cadmus cut short the fight to reign in Galatea and cover their involvement.**

**Galatea was badly injured in her first fight with Supergirl, and spent several months in an intensive care unit tended by Dr. Hamilton's team. After recovering, she was then upgraded through intensive training and a biological enhancement. Dr. Hamilton artificially aged her body to her physical prime to increase her combat effectiveness (Supergirl is in her teens, but the upgrade Galatea appears to be in her mid-20's)**

**Later on, after the Justice League was framed by Lex Luthor for firing on a city with their headquarters' main cannon, Amanda Waller ordered Galatea to lead an army of Ultimen clones to attack the League. Although Waller called off the assault after learning the truth, Galatea ignored the order and was eventually defeated by Supergirl in single combat while the League defeated the army. Supergirl defeated her by pinning her against a wall with a massive live electrical cable from the Watchtower's nuclear generator, frying Galatea with the electrical output of a small city.**

**This picks up after 'Destoyer' the last episode of the Justice League in the DCAU.**


	2. Change Up

**Chapter #2 – Change Up**

Galatea groaned in protest when the polarized sun-shade covering her bedroom window automatically opened on schedule, allowing sunlight to pour into the room.

"It can't be time to get up, can it?" she rhetorically asked the empty room, then groaned in protest again when the LED projection on the ceiling confirmed her scheduled wake-up at six-thirty in the morning.

Not an early riser by nature, grumpily she hobbled to the bathroom, relieved her bladder, then peeled off the silk pajamas Diana had insisted Edna make for her.

The pajamas weren't the only 'civilian' garments she'd received, as a whole drawer of underwear, bras, socks, jeans, blouses and dresses were waiting in her room upon her return from dinner the previous evening. Diana had insisted on the clothing, noting that even she have something else to wear besides her armor. Tea had reluctantly agreed, noting she'd only worn two outfits during her lifetime – the white uniform issued by Cadmus and the orange jumpsuit issued in prison.

A hot shower provided a much-needed wakeup. She allowed herself a moment to luxuriate under the stream from the nozzle, as she'd only been granted a three-minute shower every other day while in Belle Reeve prison. Now, there was even time to shave her legs with a razor.

It was a newly acquired skill. When she'd been 'born' in the Cadmus bio-medical laboratory, she'd learned early on that there was no way to remove the stubble of hair on her legs with anything less than her heat vision. Now that her body was bereft of its powers (and her invulnerability), a blade could cut through the tiny hairs. As she finished, Tea' wondered how soon they would be invulnerable to the cut of a blade.

She was still drying off from the shower when Diana walked unannounced into her room. Tea' yelped then closed the bathroom door with a bang. While she was used to the poking and prodding of the scientists in Cadmus' facilities, and the lack of privacy in prison, she'd been more than a little uncomfortable the day before standing nude before Diana and Edna.

This morning was no different.

"Tea, are you almost ready?" Diana called from behind the now-closed door. "Breakfast starts in fifteen minutes."

"Give me a minute, will you?" Tea wrapped the towel around her torso, then pulled a comb out of the drawer to straighten out her tangled locks. She cracked the door open to let out the steam, reasoning it would also make it easier to talk to Diana without having to shout through the bulkheads. "Just what is so important about getting there early? It's not like they run out of food."

"You don't want to get caught standing in line behind Flash, trust me," Diana said, then plopped into the corner chair. "Besides, the training room has an opening at eight. If we hurry, we can put our names on it before somebody snatches it."

"More training?" Tea groaned. "I thought after last night that you would have had your fill of abusing me for the entire week. Besides, why is the training room first-come, first-served? Can't you just put a reservation system on it?"

"We did, but certain members started re-programming the system and blocking out the best times. We changed it to the honor system. If you get there first, it's yours."

"Makes sense," Galatea agreed as she strode into the room. She stopped at her drawer, then turned around so that Diana could only see her backside as she dropped the towel on the ground. Her uniform was form fitting, so it took her a minute to wriggle into the confines of the material that Edna had provided. "You're not big on modesty, are you?"

"What are you talking about?" Diana asked.

"It's nothing, really."

"If you have something to say, then say it."

"Don't you think it's kind of odd to be standing there, watching me traipse around with nothing on?"

"I grew up on an island full of women," Diana replied with a shrug. "Trust me, I've seen it all."

"But still, a little privacy once in awhile wouldn't hurt, could it?"

Diana removed her hands from their resting-place on her hips then folded them across her chest, silently contemplating the request. She nodded in agreement when she made up her mind. "Point taken. Tomorrow we'll meet at the commissary."

"Great, let's get some food."

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"Yeah, it's her all right," Green Arrow grumbled, staring at the statuesque blonde sitting across from Diana at the opposite end of the commissary. He turned to face John Stewart, ignoring the Question, who'd quietly joined them five minutes before. "You guys in the Council just had to go ahead and screw things up again, didn't you? Why couldn't you leave well enough alone already?"

"Come on, Arrow!" Green Lantern protested. "It's not like we didn't put some counter measures in place in case she goes rogue. Look who's training her."

"I know Diana can kick everybody's ass on this station," Arrow replied. "But come on, let's face it. Is Diana really the best example the Council could come up with to mentor somebody into the League?"

"What are you getting at?" The Question asked.

"Don't get me wrong," Arrow whispered, leaning in. "But let's face it. Diana is not the easiest person to get to know. The whole 'Princess' thing gets a little much sometimes."

"You don't give her enough credit for the things she's done for the League," Lantern replied with a dismissive wave. "She's not conceited. She's just used to having her way, is all. Besides, if she wasn't on the team, Batman would have crawled back into his cave years ago. I don't know about you, but I've come to like the perks of his lifestyle."

"That may be, but I'm still worried about the clone," Arrow said, his brow furrowed as he snuck another glance toward the women. "Why couldn't you mentor her like you did Kara? Knowing her personality as well as you do, you'd probably be the first one who could tell if she was going to go rogue."

"I needn't remind you, but that's not Kara. Besides, I had my fill of mentoring the kids, especially after Kara left us for the Legion," Lantern admitted. "Diana was the only one who volunteered. I think it's a pretty good fit, on a lot of levels."

"I hope you're right," The Question interceded, "But it's going to be up to us to make sure that if she does go rogue, we'll be ready."

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"Oh great. They're staring at me again," Galatea sighed. "Is it ever going to change?"

"Ignore them," Diana commanded. "You said it yourself that there was going to be an adjustment period. Let the rest of the League adjust to you, not the other way around."

"I can handle the quick glances most of them throw my way, Diana. They're curious, I get it. But those three are like stalkers, taking it to the extreme. What's their deal?"

"They were with Kara during your first confrontation, right?" Diana asked.

Tea thought about it, then realized Diana was largely accurate, with the notable exception of Lantern. She nodded her head anyway, conceding the point.

Diana continued. "Lantern was Kara's mentor, while Arrow and the Question were like uncles…they looked after her."

"And now that I'm here and she's gone, they're ready to hate me, right?"

"Nobody hates you Tea'," Diana chided. "People are just naturally nervous about you joining the League. Trust me, it took awhile for me to get over what Shayera did to us when the Thanagarians invaded. They'll get over this."

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"Come on Bruce, is this really necessary?" Nightwing asked his mentor as they strode through the Watchtower's empty halls.

"One, its Batman – never Bruce – here on the Watchtower. Two, you broke your wrist a month ago. If you want full-time membership in the League, you're going to have to prove to me that you're ready to give one hundred percent. Anything less than that won't cut it here, understand?"

"Full-time membership? Are you serious? Why now?"

"I'm lifting the boycott," Batman replied, stopping at the door to the training room. "It doesn't make sense for you to be off the JL 'Net when an invasion from Apokilips is going down. The threats against the League keep escalating in scope. If I go down, I need someone I can trust to make the right decisions."

"Brilliant deduction," Dick replied, kindly neglecting to mention the fact that he'd pointed out that very fact to the Dark Knight almost a hundred times before to no avail. "But why here? Forget to pay the light bill for the Cave?"

"The cameras are high definition – even better than what we have at the Manor. I may want to watch the replay to make sure I didn't miss anything the first time."

"You mean if you land a lucky punch, you want to record it for posterity," Dick chortled. "Trust me, it won't happen."

Batman held the door to the training room wide open. "After you."

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"So back to that comment you made earlier about an island full of women. What's it called?" Power Girl asked as they strode through the hallways, heading toward the training room.

"Themyscira."

"Right, Themyscira! So there weren't any men at all?"

"Men are forbidden on the island," Diana replied, then launched into a synopsis she'd memorized early on to handle those curious about her background. "My mother is the Queen of the Amazons. They peacefully co-existed for millennia with other Greek tribes, but after a heinous crime was committed against them, the Gods created Themyscira, granting the remaining women in the tribe immortality in the process. Themyscira is still protected by the Gods today."

"So you've been on the island since then?"

"No, I came along a thousand years later."

"My experience with men is way too limited for my own tastes, but I know biology well enough to know that if there were no men, you shouldn't be here."

Diana smiled wanly. Her recent encounter with Hades had cast a cloud of doubt over the exact nature of her heritage, but she decided to recount the story as her mother had told her as she preferred it to the more likely possibility that she was Hades biological daughter. "My mother wanted a daughter, so the Gods told her to mold a statue of a girl, then they imbued it with the powers of the Gods. I'm the result."

Power Girl shook her head in disbelief as they arrived at the training room. "Here I thought I had a weird background. I've got nothing on you! Why did you leave the island?"

"The world was in peril five years ago. It seems to have stayed that way since I arrived. I did go back once to fight a sorcerer who'd invaded Themyscira, but I was exiled because I brought my male teammates to help me defeat him."

"You haven't been back since then?"

"I went back a few months ago," Diana admitted. "There was a similar mission for me to undertake, so afterwards my mother decided to end my exile."

"So you could live there full-time if you wanted to? Why don't you go back? From what I've gathered, it sounds peaceful…idyllic even."

"I've found Man's World to be intriguing, so I've decided to stay here. For the time being, anyway."

Galatea absorbed that thought, then saw Diana's face pale in disappointment when they reached the door. The red light was on, indicating that the training room was already occupied.

"Come on," Diana snapped, motioning up the staircase that led to the grandstands overlooking the training room. "I want to see who took our room."

Galatea obliged, and followed her mentor up the steps without a word. Ten seconds later she looked down on the floor to find two men – one of whom she knew was Batman as Diana had introduced her to the Council the previous evening – engaged in a sparring session. They wore protective padding on their gloves and feet to dampen the blows, but otherwise their uniforms were fully equipped as Batman consistently launched batarangs at his opponent, who skillfully blocked them with two club-length wooden sticks in a blur of activity.

Diana motioned for her to be quiet and to sit down. Galatea complied, transfixed by the spectacle of the session. To her eye, the punches, blocks, parrys and kicks the men employed were a blur. She struggled to follow the match then, taking note of a lesson Diana had taught her the day before, she started to breathe deeply stretched out with her senses and was rewarded as her hearing sharpened. Suddenly, the sounds of the battle were magnified ten-fold, and she could determine which attacks were effective based on the sounds of the impacts alone.

She watched their fighting styles with great interest as each man attacked and counter-attacked. Power Girl realized she could learn a lot from their styles as each move was made with strict economy of movement. Each man seized his opponent's openings without hesitation, but neither man was able to press an advantage.

Diana sat silently next to her, but Galatea piqued with interest when her enhanced hearing suddenly picked up on her mentor's heartbeat. Galatea estimated that Diana's heart was racing at almost twice its normal rate, though Galatea knew that was just a best guess on her part, having only been aware that she could pick up on its ambient noise since that morning's breakfast.

Power Girl alternated glances between the sparring match and her mentor, trying to determine the reason for the shift in Diana's physiology. Suddenly, Batman's opponent landed a solid blow on the Dark Knight's left kidney, sending him reeling across the floor. Galatea heard Diana's breath hitch – imperceptible to anyone not enhanced with superhearing.

Power Girl felt a smile spread across her face for the first time in months.

"So, Mister Pointy-Ears gets you a little hot and bothered, huh?"

Diana's head snapped towards her, as if the words she'd spoken had induced whiplash. "Where would you get such an idea?"

"Easy," Galatea replied. "My powers – my hearing and my sight at least - are coming back to me. Deny it if you want to, but I can tell that Mr. Dark and Gruesome over there makes your heart go pitter-patter. That and your body temperature has risen a bit."

Diana scowled back at her, but there was nothing she could say that would resemble a plausible denial. "Don't say another word."

"Who am I going to tell?" Power Girl replied impishly. "Besides, his friend is drop-dead gorgeous. Perfect hair, chest, shoulders. Nice butt, especially. What's his name?"

"Nightwing."

"Who is he really?" Power Girl asked, concentrating her limited x-ray vision on the two men below them. "Are they related?"

Diana considered how much she should disclose to her apprentice, then shrugged with resignation when she realized that Galatea's emerging powers would allow her to figure out the two men's identities soon enough. "Nightwing's name is Dick Grayson. Bruce Wayne – the Batman – is his father."

"A father-son combination here in the League? Really? Cadmus never said anything about that in their debriefings."

"Maybe Cadmus doesn't worry too much about the Bat-clan," Diana replied with a shrug. "As far as I know, this is Nightwing's first visit to the Watchtower. When we expanded the League, we asked Batman if he wanted any of his proteges to join forces, but he never agreed to it."

"It looks like something's changed," Power Girl replied with a mischievous smile. "Good for us."

"Good for you, you mean?"

"No, I mean good for us," the blonde replied. "Maybe we can make this work out to our mutual advantage."

"What mutual advantage is that, Galatea?" A darkly masculine voice inquired.

She whirled in her seat to find the Dark Knight and his protégé standing in the row next to them. Both men were visibly sweating from the exertion of their sparring match, but neither had made a sound scaling the training wall to confront their audience.

Galatea turned around in her seat to face Diana, mouthed 'How did they do that?' with an expression of awe, then turned to face the two men again.

"Why, training of course, Batman," Galatea replied with a disarming smile. "I could certainly use some pointers. You guys are good. Really good."

"Thanks," Nightwing replied, then offered his hand in greeting. "I'm Nightwing. Have we met?"

"Power Girl," she said, clasping his dark gloved hand in her own white gloves. "And no, we haven't met. Do you know Diana?"

"Only by reputation, unfortunately," he said affably, then nodded a greeting at the Amazon. "Batman says great things about you."

"You must be joking," Diana replied with a grin. "Batman never says great things about anybody."

"Au contraire," Dick smiled back. "The only League missions he's ever discussed are the ones which involve you."

Diana glanced at the Dark Knight for confirmation, but he only glared back at his son.

The silence was uncomfortable. Dick came to his senses and realized that he was still shaking hands with Power Girl. He finally dropped her hand and decided to break the silence. "Well, we're finished with the training room. I'm guessing you two want to use it?"

"Where are you off to?" Power Girl inquired.

"Batman promised breakfast if I lasted ten minutes with him in the training room."

"Did you pass the test?" she asked, eyebrows raised in curiosity.

He leaned in close then winked. "With flying colors. Want to join us?"

"We already -" Diana started.

"- We'd love to join you, wouldn't we, Diana?" Power Girl interrupted, then looped her arm through Nightwing's and led him away down the corridor before her mentor could respond. "I'm starving."

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Batman and Diana hesitated for a few moments, consciously giving the younger couple a head-start. Diana knew Batman well enough to know that he was waiting until they were out of ear-shot, but she started to walk anyway. He grunted, a signal for her to wait, but she shook her head, motioning for him to keep up.

"She told me that she already got her hearing back, so it doesn't do us any good to wait for some privacy."

He nodded, then joined up with her on the walk to the commissary.

"How are things with Power Girl?" Batman inquired.

"She's headstrong, opinionate, and generally a pain unless she gets her way."

"I thought she was Kara's clone, not yours."

Diana stopped and covered her mouth in mock surprise. "Did Batman just make a joke? Maybe you should bring Nightwing up here more often."

"Dick's membership is going to be permanent."

"Dick's joining the League full-time?"

He grunted in acknowledgement, then realized he owed Diana more explanation than what he offered the rest of the League. "I've held him back long enough. He's ready."

"How did you know when he was ready?"

"When he kicked me in the kidney ten minutes ago. I never saw it coming. Worse, it hurt like hell."

Diana stared at him for a moment, then smiled with understanding. "You must feel like a proud parent. For the first time in his life, Dick surpassed you."

"Not surpassed. Equaled."

"Apparently the massive ego problem runs through the Bat-Clan," Diana observed.

"Said the woman who decided to mentor the next addition to the League while simultaneously deciding who to recommend for the Inner Council."

"Touche," she grinned. "But at least this way things don't get boring."

"Speaking of boring, when are we going to put together those dossiers?"

"How about after breakfast? We were supposed to train, but I guess our plans have changed."

"Who's going to watch after Power Girl?"

"If Dick is full-time now, why not him? Tea' seems to have taken a shine to him."

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"So what was it like growing up the son of the Batman?"

"Adopted son actually," Dick replied. "My parents were killed when I was ten. Bruce took me in as a ward, then adopted me later on."

"But at some point he let you in on his secret?"

He nodded as they stopped to wait for the elevator to take them up to the commissary level. "He trained me as his sidekick. I did that until I was in college, then I got sick of following his orders all the time. Been on my own since then. How about you? What's your background?"

Her face instantly clouded. "You don't know about me?"

"Batman isn't exactly known for his conversational skills," Dick said while stepping into the elevator alongside her. "I haven't been de-briefed on any of the members except the original seven."

"So that's why you don't look at me like the rest of them do."

"How do the rest of them look at you?"

"Like I tried to kill them."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Galatea hesitated a moment, then breathlessly launched into an explanation of her background, starting with details about the original cloning schemes, storming the Watchtower with the Ultimen, and concluding with Superman and Diana's recruitment offer into the League.

"It wasn't until I was de-programmed that I knew just how sick and twisted the whole thing was," she concluded. "I hope you don't hate me like the rest of them do."

"Why would I hate you?" he asked, pausing at the commissary entrance. "It wasn't your fault."

"Tell them that," Power Girl replied bitterly, sweeping her hand across the expanse of the room.

Most of the Leaguers and technicians went silent as soon as they saw her, then the conversations resumed in a subdued hush when Diana and Batman walked up next to them.

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"I thought you said you were starving," Nightwing observed as Tea' sat down next to him.

"Guess I'm not as hungry as I thought," she replied. Tea' shifted her gaze to Diana, pleading with her eyes not to divulge they'd eaten a full breakfast earlier that morning.

"So, Nightwing, what do you think about the Watchtower?" Diana chimed in.

"When Batman told me about the size of this thing, I contemplated on calling him on it," Dick admitted. "Now, I'm glad I didn't."

"It certainly put the first one he built to shame," Diana replied, then turned in her seat to face Batman. "How much bigger is this one?"

"Counting the defensive pods orbiting out there?" Batman asked.

"They're manned, so why not?"

"There's roughly ten times the living space that we had on the first one," he explained to Power Girl and Nightwing. "I learned a lot from the design of the first one, making some improvements the second time around."

"Is that your primary role in the League, to do engineering and build things?" Galatea asked Batman. "I mean, it's not like you have any superpowers or anything."

She knew instantly she'd committed a serious gaffe when Diana and Nightwing's faces turned incredulous. Only Batman remained unaffected by the question.

"I don't have any problem with you looking at it that way," Batman replied. "You're right about me not having any powers, so I try to find other ways to contribute. Paying for the Watchtower is one of them."

"I have a problem with looking at it that way," Diana replied indignantly. "You're not some dilettante that we beg for money." She turned to stare at Power Girl. "You and I are going to have a little talk later on."

"I wasn't trying to insult him!" Galatea responded. "Honest."

Batman reached out and touched Diana on the wrist. "There's no harm, Diana." He turned to level his gaze at Power Girl. "But I would add one thing: Don't ever underestimate your opponents, even the ones who are unpowered. We wouldn't be sitting here in this room if you hadn't underestimated Kara and Steel. I hope you heed Diana's lessons. The prisons are filled with criminals who underestimated her because of her appearance."

"I'll try not to," Tea replied.

"Do more than try," Batman said, then looked down at his empty plate. "I'm done. Diana, do you want to get started on that project?"

"What project is that?" Nightwing asked.

"Council business," Batman replied.

"What do you want me to do?" Nightwing inquired. "Wait here for you, or head back to Bludhaven?"

"Why don't you keep Power Girl, or is it Tea?"

"Either is fine."

"Tea then. Why don't you let Tea show you around the Watchtower?"

"I've only been on four levels," she replied. "I'm not sure if I'll make a good tour guide."

"That leaves you twelve more to explore. Do you remember where you got your comm. link?"

"Deck Five?"

"Take Nightwing there and have him set up." Batman said, then pushed himself away from the table. Diana stood up to join him, then the two Council members strode away, leaving Nightwing and Power Girl alone. They stared at each other for a moment, then both of them broke into a grin at the same time.

"What are you laughing about? Nightwing asked.

"I was just thinking of a phrase I heard once. You know, 'when the cats are away, the mice will play'," Tea replied. "Would you mind if we stopped by my room on the way to pick up your comm. link?"

"Sure," Nightwing shrugged. "As long as you don't mind if I make an imposition."

"Well it will depend on the imposition," she replied, batting her eyelashes playfully, "But I imagine that I will have a hard time denying any request you make."

Nightwing felt a surge of adrenaline flood through his body when he realized that she was flirting with him. He licked his lips as his mouth had suddenly gone dry. "I don't suppose a shower would be out of the question?"

Power Girl contemplated the request with a wicked grin. "No, a shower is definitely NOT out of the question." She kicked her chair back to stand up, but she did it slowly, careful to give him an eyeful of her cleavage as she rose up to her full height. "Got anything else in mind?"

"In mind? Yes. Can I talk about it in a public place? No."

"Well then what are you sitting around for?"

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	3. Redemption?

**Chapter #3 – Redemption**

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"Did my eyes deceive me, or did we just watch a hook-up?" Oliver Queen asked his teammates.

John Stewart furrowed his brow, but shrugged his disdain at the fact that they had nothing better to do than spy on the League's newest additions. "Come on, Arrow, you're being a little paranoid, don't you think? Just because they left together doesn't mean they're hooking up."

"Are you blind? She came onto the rookie like a cat in heat. They're probably rutting in the elevator by now."

Lantern leaned back in his chair with an exasperated sigh. "So what if they are? I've done it, and so have you. When we asked you to join the League, you had one foot out the door. You got right back in line when you got a glimpse of Dinah in her fishnets. Our friend here somehow managed to convince Helena that he was worth a second look, though for the life of me I can't figure how _THAT_ happened."

"I'm telling you, she's got a bigger agenda than just porking the rookie," Arrow replied. "We already agreed that we don't trust her. And now look at what she's calling herself. Power Girl? She's rubbing our noses in it and taking the rookie down with her."

"You've been hanging out with this dude too much, Arrow," Lantern said, pointing at The Question, who had oddly remained quiet. "You're seeing conspiracies where none exist."

"Conspiracies exist everywhere," The Question replied gravely. "After all we went through with Cadmus, you still don't think there's a possibility that she'll turn on us? Look at how easily they turned Captain Atom – and they didn't even brainwash him. Either she's really easy -"

"…which is possible," Lantern interrupted. "We all knew Kara was kind of boy-crazy. Must run in the genes."

"Or maybe she's got an agenda bigger than her boobs," Green Arrow replied. "Either way, she's going to cause more trouble than she's worth."

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"Are you sure leaving Tea and Nightwing alone together is a good idea?" Diana asked, settling into the chair next to Batman.

They were seated in office anteroom that connected off the larger conference room the Inner Council used for their meetings. Only the seven original Leaguers had access to either room, six, now that J'onn had taken a full sabbatical. There were four computer-docking stations but they only needed two to complete the task at hand, so Diana sat next to Batman in order to share the stack of files between them. While everything else on the Watchtower was accessible via computer, Batman had insisted that a hard copy of the members classified information be kept as a back-up.

"Is there a reason for me to be worried?" Batman said, simultaneously pulling the computerized member dossiers into a subdirectory he named 'Bump'.

"Why 'Bump'?" Diana asked, wrinkling her nose at the choice.

He shrugged. "Somebody is going to get a bump in rank and sit with us on the Council. What would you prefer, Project Icarus, or some other Greek myth?"

"Do I look like a myth to you?"

"Hardly. You look like…" his voice trailed off lamely.

"…like what?" She challenged.

"Hrn," he grunted, embarrassed that she'd backed him into a corner. He tried to think of something witty, then he remembered her earlier statement and used it as an opportunity to change the subject. "Why again, should I be worried about Nightwing and Tea?"

"I don't know what 'Hrn' looks like," Diana replied, miffed that he'd ignored that she'd been fishing for a compliment. "And to answer your question, she likes him, that's why."

"What's wrong with that?"

"There's nothing wrong with it, other than the fact that they've been with the League for a few hours. They haven't even finished their orientation, and already they're concentrating on other things."

"Other things?"

"Each other," Diana said. "I don't know that Tea needs the distraction of a young man right now, that's all."

"Probably just a little harmless flirtation," he said. "Besides, I learned the hard way not to interfere with Dick's romantic life. He and Barb dated for awhile. I tried to intervene. It ended badly."

"Barb?"

"Batgirl. Forgot you two haven't met."

"I never met anybody besides Alfred when I was at the Manor," Diana noted. "But I have a feeling that where Dick and Tea are concerned, it's more than a little harmless flirtation. Didn't you notice the way they were looking at each other?"

"They both just joined the League. They have something in common as a result."

"Bruce, I'm well aware of your list of issues, but hearing isn't one of them. Listen to me. Two minutes after she first got a glimpse of him, Tea told me he's got a nice butt. Last time I heard a woman say that on the Watchtower, Dinah started stalking Green Arrow in the commissary. Now they're sharing quarters."

"Okay," he nodded, finally conceding the point. "You're right. It's a little too early for a romance here on the Watchtower, isn't it?"

"Bruce, need I remind you that, according to your timetable, _never_ is too soon for a romance here on the Watchtower?"

There was a weariness in her declaration and he turned to look at her. Her eyes betrayed the same weariness carried by her voice. Bruce found it unsettling. He stared at her for a moment, trying to think of a new response that would allow him to rationally explain why it wouldn't work between the two of them, but nothing came to mind.

She searched his face for an answer, but anticipated his silence. "Nothing to say? Why should I be surprised?"

Batman stared at her, betraying nothing behind the poker face which he in turn hid behind the cowl he was wearing. "You done?"

"That's a question probably best answered another day," she responded. "But I am ready to start vetting the candidates. Who's first? Dinah? Good."

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Nightwing forced himself not to pick up the pace as he escorted Tea down the corridor. It was a difficult task as his mind was imagining the likely wonders of the body straining against the white garment that left so little to the imagination in the first place.

He didn't ask their destination, but he assumed they were headed back to her room. Nothing had been expressly stated, but he'd been with enough women in his life to know when they were putting out signs of interest. The most obvious had been a minute before when she'd leaned against him to press the elevator button, purposely dragging her breasts across his arm when a simple voice command would have accomplished the same thing.

Despite her obvious intent to titillate, Tea kept the thread of the conversation they'd been having earlier going. "So Bruce adopted you after your parents were killed. Did you also have a step-mom?"

"No. Bruce never married." Dick replied, then Tea saw his face cloud with a memory that was obviously troubled. "Wait, I take that back. He was married for two days, but his wife turned out to be a genetically engineered replicant."

"A replicant?" she challenged, eyes flashing with suspicion. "Like me?"

"Not like you," Dick replied softly. "You're a clone. Susan McGuire was a plant genetically engineered to function as a human being."

"Engineered by whom?"

"Poison Ivy. She's a bio-chemical genius at toxins, pheromones and cloning. She invented most of the gene splicing technology that we use today."

"Maybe I should send her a thank you note," Tea replied curtly. "So what happened to the replicant?"

"It fooled us all until Bruce figured out he was under the influence of Ivy's love pheromones. Ultimately it was blown up on a yacht along with the rest of them. Ivy had arranged a group honeymoon on a yacht so she could scuttle it at sea and let her replicants inherit the money, but he stopped her."

"No wonder Bruce doesn't want to date Diana," Tea mused. "I'd be a little gun shy if I married somebody who turned out to be a plant."

"What did you just say? Why would Bruce date Diana?"

"She likes him. A lot. She didn't exactly spill the beans, but it seems like they have some history. Didn't he tell you?"

Dick shook his head and gave a low whistle of incredulity. "Never a word, but that's not a shock. Bruce doesn't tell me much about anything. Especially his love life."

"Can you help them out?"

"How?"

"I don't know. Plant a suggestion over beers one night.Just don't be obvious."

"We don't exactly hang out in the Cave and throw a keggar after patrol," Dick chortled. Why are you suddenly so interested in playing match-maker?"

"Because Diana has the final say on whether or not I'm a permanent member of the League. If I can hook them up, maybe she'll be too happy to notice if I'm screwing up all the time."

"I doubt that hooking up with Batman will be Diana's ticket to happiness," Dick said with a wink. "But more important, why do you think you're going to be screwing up all the time?"

"Batman already pointed out that I have a tendency to underestimate people. I assume the rest of the Council thinks my judgment is lacking. Maybe they're right."

"What do you care what they think?"

"I have no place else to go," Tea lamented. "Cadmus created me for a single, sick purpose. Now that the need for me is no longer relevant, they want no part of me. The League is my last shot at redemption."

"That's being a bit dramatic, isn't it?" Dick protested. "So what if you wash out? It's not like the League is going to send you back to prison."

"I know what the score is, Dick, and I'm not about to start fooling myself that the League was overjoyed to hear the Council let me join as a probationary member. Think about it. Six months ago I led an army of replicants onto the Watchtower with the sole purpose of destroying the League. It was a suicide mission. I signed up for it, too. It was pretty easy to go kamikaze knowing that my whole existence was a sick joke. The Council knows my history, so they can't afford to let a proven homicidal maniac loose on Earth. They'll send me back to prison if I wash out. Or someplace worse."

"Then prove them wrong, Tea," Dick chided gently, then squeezed her hand for emphasis. "I'll be happy to help."

"I may just take you up on that offer," she replied with a smile.

Nightwing was about to gallantly offer his townhome in Bludhaven as a 'crash pad' in case she washed out of the League when they rounded a corner, but she stopped in her tracks as soon as she spied a lone figure standing in the hallway.

Steel stood before them next to the glass window. He didn't acknowledge them as he stared at the defense satellites orbiting around the Watchtower. By the voice commands emanating from within the armor, Nightwing ascertained Steel was supervising the two astronauts working on one of the satellite's solar panels.

Nightwing assumed that he and Tea would only nod a quick hello and continue on the way to their assignation, but Tea surprised him when she stopped in front of the man the press affectionately referred to as "The Man of Steel." He nodded almost imperceptibly to show that he knew she was there, but didn't deviate from his task.

"Give me a minute, will you?" She asked Dick, then turned her back to him so she could address Steel. "I owe you an explanation."

Nightwing didn't know what she was referring to specifically, but Steel nodded in understanding. "Give me five minutes," he replied, then resumed supervising the astronauts. "I can't leave them hanging out there."

"Fine," Tea replied, then turned to face Nightwing. "I'm so sorry, but I owe him an apology ."

"Do what you've got to do," he replied. "Do you want me to wait?"

She shook her head. "I don't know how long this is going to take. Why don't you take the elevator back to Deck Five then ask somebody where you get a comm. link?"

"That will work," he agreed, but there was a note of disappointment on his face that was all too visible to Tea.

"Take a rain check?" she suggested.

"You never know when it will rain," he replied with a wink, then turned and walked back to the elevator.

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Diana stretched her arms over her head and heaved a weary sigh of relief when she finished reading the last of the files on Aquaman, Orion, Mr. Miracle, Black Canary, Zatanna, Mr. Terrific, Green Arrow and Steel. She knew that her body looked most appealing when her breasts were straining against the confines of her armor, so she left her arms raised for an extra ten seconds to see if he would glance her way.

She saw his eyes flicker over her chest for a moment before returning to the computer screen. Satisfied that she could still command his attention with such a display, she dropped her arms back to her sides.

She and Batman had alternated reading the files but he'd managed to finish before her. Diana looked at the computer screen and shook her head with amazement that he'd started analyzing some crime scene samples on the computer in the Cave via the remote hook-up.

"Don't you ever take a break?" she teased.

"No time," he replied. "Who did you pick?"

"I narrowed my list to four candidates," she replied, pointing to the printer. "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

"Done," he replied, pressing the print button with the mouse. Diana leaned over him to retrieve the lists from the computer, 'accidentally' brushing against him before she dropped her list onto his desk. She sat back down and perused his list.

"Your list is very progressive," she noted, surprised by his top four candidates of Steel, Mr. Terrific, Zatanna and Black Canary.

"How so?"

"Two minority candidates and two females."

"I don't care about their race or their plumbing," Batman replied. "Just whether they can do the job. Those four are the best candidates. The rest have too many issues ."

"Said the King of Issues," Diana teased. "But you're right, my list matches yours. I struggled with the idea of Green Arrow over Steel, but Steel's engineering expertise put him over the top."

"Agreed," Batman replied. "Steel has upgraded more of my sub-systems than I can count. I think Arrow is better suited as a team leader. He thinks in terms of tactics, not strategies."

"Interesting insight. So what's next?"

"We can either put it up to a formal vote with the Council or dig a little deeper and test the candidates."

"Test them? How?"

"We have two new recruits recently inducted into the League. Why don't we let Dick and Tea spend a day with each one of the candidates? We can tell the candidates that it's part of their training, which is certainly true, and we'll tell Dick and Tea the same thing. When they're done, we'll see if our rookies can offer any information that we're not privy to as Council Members."

"What kind of information?"

"Think about it. How does the rest of the League look at us?"

"The council members? They treat us like we're royalty," Diana grinned. "I see that it's taken longer for some of you to get used to."

"We can't afford to have somebody on the Council who looks at us like we put our pants on differently than they do. We might get the best view of our candidates based on how they treat junior members."

"Point taken, though you and Superman DO put your pants on differently than the rest us," Diana replied, pointing to the underwear that he was wearing over his pants. Her expression turned serious when she saw him scowl. "Do we tell Dick and Tea what they're really working on?"

"Only when they're done," Batman replied. "Otherwise they might let slip what they're doing. I don't want them to give any unbiased views, just the facts as they see them."

Diana nodded, but it was evident to Batman that she still had doubts.

"Problem?" Batman asked.

"I'm worried that we're giving our two newcomers too much responsibility this early in their careers," she admitted.

"They'll be fine," Batman assured her. "I've trained Dick to deal with difficult situations since he was ten years old."

"It's not him I'm worried about. You said yourself that the rest of the League will be upset if a Council member isn't there to escort Power Girl around."

"They'll have to learn to bend," Batman replied with a shrug. "Besides, there are ways to ensure she doesn't get out of line."

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Power Girl stood quietly, her back propped against the bulkhead while Steel finished supervising the astronauts. She was bored, as the five minutes he'd asked for had taken twenty minutes. With nothing to occupy her time, she'd tested the limits of her super-hearing by listening to Steel give directions to the men working on the defense satellite two hundred meters from the Watchtower.

A red-light at the top of a handheld device in his hand suddenly flashed to green, and Steel nodded in appreciation at their work.

"Nice job, guys." Steel said into the open line in his comm. link that linked directly to the astronaut's helmets. "After you're through with decompression, I'll buy you a beer."

"Make it two," one of the men replied. "That electrical panel was in worse shape than we thought."

"Two it is then," Steel replied, then turned to face Tea. "Sorry about that. One of the solar panels fried, and it shorted out the sub-panel."

"No problem," she shrugged. "I'm kind of used to having a lot of time on my hands."

"I heard about that," he nodded, then surprised her by pulling the helmet off his head. "Belle Reeve pretty bad, huh?"

"Only if you think living like a mole is a nice lifestyle," she answered facetiously. "But it was the price I had to pay for what I did."

"Superman briefed me and Kara about what Cadmus did to you," Steel replied. "It wasn't your fault that you followed orders."

"I can forgive myself for that part of it," Tea said, "But I can't forgive myself for the beating that I gave you and Kara."

"It wasn't personal," Steel interjected. "At least, it wasn't for me."

"But it was personal for me," Tea said. She spun on her heels and walked further down the hallway, but stopped and stared out the window rather than face him. "When Kara started taunting me about not being a real person and how I was more of a robot than anything else, she hit a little too close to home. I wanted to punish her for having all of the things that I wanted but could never have."

"Membership in the League seemed pretty appealing even back then, huh?"

"Hardly," she scoffed. "I was talking about friends, family, a real identity for that matter."

"It wasn't easy for Kara, you know," Steel replied. "She was the last survivor from Argo. When she came to Earth, Superman had to keep her under wraps so she wouldn't attract any attention. She told me stories about how she was afraid she was going crazy on the farm--."

"—With the Kent's?"

"How did you know about that?" he asked.

"I shared dreams with Kara for months, remember?" Tea answered. "Every morning I woke up wondering why I was supposed to call Professor Hamilton my father when I had Ma and Pa Kent back on the farm."

"That had to be tough," he said. "Don't be so hard on yourself about wanting the things she had. It's human nature."

"I'm not human, remember?" Her voice was bitter.

"You know what I mean."

"I know what you mean, but that hasn't stopped the nightmares about going postal on my twin," she said, heaving a weary sigh.

"Going Postal? Where did you hear that one? In prison?"

"More shared dreams," she replied with a wink. "I can tell you how to milk a cow or what Kara let Tommy Johnson do to her in the backseat of his father's Chrysler."

"Whoa," Steel replied, holding up his hand. "Way too much information there."

"Tell me about it," she replied. "There wasn't a man close to my age that I could even flirt with, so I was a little pissed that Kara was off having all the fun--"

"--while Cadmus was busy training you to storm the Watchtower," Steel finished for her. "Trust me. When you were beating the crap out of me, I wasn't all that sympathetic to your situation. But now that I know what they did to you, I can tell you there's no hard feelings from my side. Understand?"

"Thanks," she replied, then surprised herself by wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. "That means a lot to me."

"No problem," he replied, surprised by the embrace, but he returned the hug before gently extricating himself. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help make your life here a little easier."

"I just might take you up on that," she smiled, then headed for the elevator. "See you around."

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	4. Cocktails?

Chapter #4 – Cocktails?

"So what's next?" Power Girl asked Diana as they sat down in Diana's office. "More training?"

"You're done for the day," Diana replied. "I've got a diplomatic function – a cocktail party actually - that I have to attend tonight at the U.N."

"A night on the town in New York doesn't sound so bad. Where do you find the time to serve as a diplomat?"

"Since my mother started sending letters to the U.S. President and other world leaders."

"Letters? What kind of letters?"

Diana changed her voice and carriage to mimic that of her mother. "'Dear Mr. President, any further over-flights of Themyscira by the U.S. Navy will be considered an Act of War and our nation will respond accordingly.' That kind of thing."

"Act of War?" Tea asked. "Isn't that a bit harsh?"

"You've never met my mother." Diana's eyes twinkled as she had a thought. "Want to come to the party?"

"Really?" Tea asked, unable to contain her excitement at the prospect of a night on the town. "Please tell me you aren't joking."

"Why would I joke about something like that?"

Tea suppressed the response waiting on the tip of her tongue. She'd been more than happy to agree that it was unlikely for Diana to joke about anything. While Tea had served as Diana's apprentice for less than forty-eight hours, she'd already determined that Diana was way too uptight to bear even a facetious comment about her lack of a sense of humor. As loathsome as she found it to be, Tea decided to remain politically correct, so she murmured, "It sounds like fun."

"It's over-rated, trust me. Verbalizing platitudes to your diplomat companions while they're trying to stare down the front of your dress can be a little trying," Diana said.

Tea saw Diana's face flush with embarrassment that she'd confided such a detail to a woman she'd known for less than two days – an apprentice in the League no less, so she wasn't surprised when Diana decided to switch topics. "You and Nightwing find everything okay?"

"Didn't get a chance to spend much time with him," Tea replied glumly. "We ran into Steel on our way to Deck Five, so I sent Dick ahead to go get his comm. link. By the time I caught up, Dick had already transported back to Bludhaven."

"So you talked with Steel. How did that go?" Diana prodded.

"Like a visit to the dentist."

"That bad?"

Tea nodded. "Actually he was very nice about it. He seemed to get over the beating that I gave him a lot better than I did."

"Maybe a night out on the town will help you take your mind off those things," Diana said with a hopeful smile. "Want to go visit Edna? I don't think you have a cocktail dress."

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"Where are they?" a gruff but all too familiar voice commanded.

"Top floor of the warehouse on the opposite corner," Nightwing told Batman without bothering to lower the binoculars. Nor did he need to look at his mentor to determine if anybody was along to play the sidekick role. "You alone? I thought joining the League meant bringing in the A Team."

"We'll just have to make do for now. What's happening inside?"

Nightwing gave Batman a quick account of their quarry. In recent weeks, he'd taken down a new breed of criminals known as 'Tweakers'. Fueled by a dangerous combination of crystal-meth and steroids that gave them twenty-four hours of strength on par with Bane, the Tweakers had caused so much havoc that they were likely to gut the city of its resident population unless somebody stopped them soon.

Dick had shaken down every informant in town. The rumor was that tweaking had been introduced to Bludhaven by two biochemists known as 'The Trust'. Other informants whispered the whole operation was run by two tattoo artists who'd purchasedsome chemicals and related machinery from a front company formerly owned by Cadmus.

Either way, the Tweakers were just another grim reminder that the battle for Bludhaven was far from over.

From the scene of an armored car robbery, Nightwing had tracked a team of twenty Tweakers riding motorcycles back to the warehouse hideout. The robbery had been amazingly brash in its execution. Dick had observed the whole thing from a rooftop. Like Bane, the Tweakers took a second shot of their concoction before ripping the vault doors off the armored car's hinges with their bare hands. Knowing that he was outmanned, Dick had secured a tracer to a side-car they'd loaded some of the money into, then fell back to track them while he waited for reinforcements.

"This group must be funding their expansion into Gotham," Batman surmised as he stared at the warehouse through his own binoculars. He straightened quickly when he located a rooftop entrance on top of the warehouse, then shot a grapple line onto a nearby smokestack to swing over. "Ready for a closer look?"

Nightwing secured his binoculars on his belt then ran to the ledge. It was only a twenty meter expanse between their perch and the warehouse, so he unfurled the vanes that allowed him to glide through the air. He landed a second before Batman touched down, then the two men slipped into the stairwell that led into the building.

Neither man noticed the motion-detector hidden in the fire alarm until it shifted from green to red. Nightwing spied the color shift in his peripheral vision. Sensing it was a trap, he managed to warn Batman and flee back toward the door when the hail of plasma fire erupted around them.

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"So you just joined the League?" the bearded man asked Tea in English so heavily influenced by the man's native Turkish accent that she could barely understand him. "It must be quite a view from up there."

Tea stared over her glass at the man who stood at least five inches shorter than her five-foot, eight-inch stature. Apparently he'd decided to overcompensate for his lack of height by packing on an extra two hundred pounds. She was nauseous from watching the man hoover away plate after plate of appetizers while trying to impress her with his bloodlines to the Caliphate. Unfortunately his appetite wasn't limited to hors d'oeveres as he'd alternated between staring at the contents of his plate and the chasm of cleavage revealed by the slinky black cocktail dress that Edna had produced an hour before.

"The view is pretty nice," Tea confirmed "Are you enjoying it?"

"Eh?" the man asked, evidently trying to discern her implication while pretending not to stare at her chest.

"The view? Are you enjoying it? After all, you've been staring down my dress for five minutes. I would have figured that you'd gotten an eyeful by now."

The man turned crimson with embarrassment, then walked away. Her enhanced hearing picked up mutterings in a language that she couldn't understand, but the intent was clear enough.

Tea sighed, then wandered back to the bar. She asked for another glass of cabernet to replace the one she'd finished, then muttered an apology to the bartender when she realized she didn't have any money for a tip. Embarrassed, she wandered back into the throng to 'work the crowd' as Diana had suggested, but Tea made it all the way across the room without being approached. She leaned back against the wall, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible while she debated her next move. It was puzzling, as she'd never initiated a conversation in her life with a stranger. Her vantage point was a good place to learn the art of small-talk however, so she spent a few minutes listening to some of the conversations.

It wasn't enough to keep her interested for long. Searching the crowd, she spied Diana talking to a broad shouldered African. Her vision zoomed in on his nameplate - a Nigerian diplomat. Tea thought about interrupting their conversation but she decided to keep to herself when she saw the African's face blanche with fear as Diana's expression turned from that of a diplomat to a warrior.

Trying to decipher the snippets of conversation she'd picked up from Diana, Tea decided to relocate to the buffet table to satisfy her hunger pangs. After spending six months in prison on a regimented schedule, she was accustomed to eating an early dinner.

She was quietly munching on a scallop wrapped with bacon when she heard Diana approach her. "You're right about these things," Tea muttered between mouthfuls. "They're terrible."

"The scallops?" Diana asked. "I don't remember mentioning them."

"Not the scallops," Tea said. "The party. You were right. It's boring. Most of these people have nothing interesting to say or if they do, they treat me like I'm some high-priced hooker. Maybe I should look at it as a glass half-full. Two middle-eastern princes have promised me long term employment if I become a consort for either of them."

"Only two?" Diana asked with a bemused smile as she filled her own plate with the scallops. "It must be a slow night."

"How do you stand these things?"

"I like to dance. Every once in awhile somebody interesting comes along and spins you around the floor for a song or two. It makes it tolerable."

"That how you met Bruce?" Tea asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

Diana nearly choked on the scallop she was eating. Slowly, she finished chewing her food then carefully swallowed so she wouldn't repeat the mistake. "I didn't think Kryptonians could read minds."

"Lucky guess," Tea smiled. "Besides, I'mArgonian, though I'm not sure there's a difference. I wonder what Dick would look like in a tux."

"If he looks half as good as his father, then consider yourself lucky," Diana replied.

"Dick told me that Bruce is his adopted father," Tea objected.

"I know, but you have to admit the resemblance is uncanny," Diana said. She put her plate down after she plopped the last scallop into her mouth then motioned Tea to follow her out onto a balcony that wasn't occupied. They stared at the skyline of the city for a few minutes then Diana looked at her to see if she'd had her fill. "Ready to go?"

"We've only been here for an hour," Tea said. "Are you sure you want to leave so early?"

"I already delivered my message."

"What was that about? Judging by the look on your face, I thought you were going to take a swing at that man."

"I told the chairman of the human rights committee on Africa to return the money that he embezzled from our fund."

"What fund?"

"The League designates annual endowments directly to charities of our choosing, but the money flows through the U.N. In keeping with its reputation as the second most corrupt organization behind the International Olympic Committee, the Chairman over there decided to skim half the endowment to purchase a chalet in Switzerland. I told him that if he doesn't return the money by noon tomorrow, he'll deal with the consequences."

"What kind of consequences? Jail time? Isn't he protected by diplomatic immunity?"

"There's no diplomatic immunity that can spare him from a midnight visit by Batman," Diana replied. "He has a way of motivating people to do the right thing."

Tea laughed. "Out of all the members in the League, Batman is the one people fear the most. And here I thought it was just Amanda Waller that he freaked out so badly. No wonder you like him so much."

"I don't like him because people fear him, Tea." Diana chided. "That's his least attractive quality."

"What's his most attractive quality?"

Diana paused to consider the question, then sighed with exasperation that she didn't have a ready answer. "I admire his dedication and his courage."

"That's a nice scripted answer, but what's the real reason?"

Diana chewed on her lip, trying to think of what it was about Bruce that had sent a tingle down her spine since she'd first set eyes upon him during their battle with the Invaders. "The only thing I can tell you is that I find him intriguing."

"Whatever THAT means." Tea replied, rolling her eyes. "Look if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

Diana pursed her lips as she tried to determine how much she was willing to divulge, then realized with a pang of regret that she really didn't have a confidant in the League to talk about such matters. She decided to confide in Tea, reasoning that it really couldn't do any harm. "I never know what he's going to do next. The first time I met him, he saved us from the Imperium, then he immediately disappeared. Next time I saw him, he presented us with a fully equipped Watchtower, but then declined full-time membership in the League."

"Sounds interesting, but not intriguing," Tea observed. "Is there more to it?"

Diana nodded. "The first time I ever saw him without the cape and cowl, he waltzed me away from a crowd of overeager fans at a cocktail party like this one."

"So he's a flirt," Tea nodded. "He likes to play games."

"A few months ago I cornered him on a Gotham rooftop to see if he'd agree to a date. He told me we couldn't date for some really stupid reasons, then made a complete ass of himself with Circe in order to free me from one of her spells. He drives me crazy."

"If you ask me, he's got control issues."

"Control is only one of his issues," Diana started, then raised her hand in apology to Tea. They both triggered their comm. links to receive the message, but Tea quietly deferred to Diana, who immediately spoke up. "Diana here, Mr. Terrific. What's up?"

"Just got a distress call from Bludhaven. Nightwing is requesting League back-up."

"So why not transport the on-call squad directly to Bludhaven to deal with it?" Diana replied.

"Transporter's are down."

"When are we going to get those transporters to work more than half the time?" Diana barked. "Can't you launch a Javelin?"

"We don't have time to reduce the Watchtower's altitude, and our orbit won't pass over Bludhaven for three more hours."

"Can't a Javelin do a retrograde insertion?" Diana asked. "I just had this dress made, and Power Girl's with me. She's not mission certified."

"Last time a Javelin did an insertion like that, Batman almost burned up saving you and Superman from that nuke over San Salvador," Mr. Terrific reminded her. "Besides, Edna can always make you a new dress."

"Tell him we're ten minutes out," Diana replied with a sigh, then terminated the link. She turned to face Tea. "Are you ready for your first mission?"

Tea stared at her, surprised that she was being dragged along. "Something bad going down in Bludhaven?"

"Dick wouldn't have called if he could handle it on his own," Diana replied. "Are you back to full power yet?"

"I can't fly," Tea noted, then flexed her muscles. "But I do feel a lot stronger today than yesterday. I should be able to help."

"I'll put you in charge of crowd control when we get there," Diana replied, then wrapped her arm around Power Girl's torso to secure her grip. "Just make sure you don't get into the fight."

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"Where's our back-up?" Diana and Tea heard shouted into their comm. links. Flying a mile above sea-level, they were heading south-east toward Bludhaven. Gotham City was disappearing in their wake, and the lights of Bludhaven were faintly visible through the gloom of the fog rolling in off the Atlantic.

They traded glances of concern as Dick's tone was desperate. Secured in Diana's firm grip around her waist, Tea triggered her comm. link with her free hand.

"We're about two minutes out, present speed. What is your location?"

"Make it one minute," Dick replied. Tea shuddered as she heard the sound of a firefight over his open comm. link. "Head for the wharf, we're impossible to miss."

Diana increased her speed until her eyelids were fluttering in the wind. She spied Tea trying to shield her eyes with her free hand but, judging by the desperation in Dick's voice, now wasn't the time to worry about Power Girl's mascara. She yawed her flight path out over the harbor to gain a better angle for her reconnaissance, at the same time dropping altitude to help search for their teammates.

She squinted through the fog shrouding Bludhaven, desperately trying to locate her target. A muffled whump of a grenade ahead betrayed the location of the battle. Diana debated for a moment about setting Tea down a few blocks from the warehouse, but a sudden hail of plasma-rifle discharges caused her to re-think her strategy.

Diana circled around the roof, heading for the rear of an air conditioning unit where the bulk of the firepower was being directed, but she didn't see Batman or Nightwing. She stalled to a hover two hundred meters above the building, perplexed as to the location of her teammates.

"There!" Tea shouted, motioning towards the faint outline of a cape silhouetted against the burning roof of the warehouse. Diana nodded, then followed the cape as it swung on a grapple line back to the smokestack on the opposite side of the street. The owners of the plasma rifles tracked their target as well. Diana was horrified as two of the bursts tore their target to shreds before she could deflect the blasts.

"Batman!" she whispered with dread as the cape plummeted to the ground below her. She dove to arrest his fall before he hit the ground, stretching to grab his cape ten feet before impact.

She managed to arrest the fall, but Batman wasn't attached to the cape. Dianalowered Tea ontothe street next to her to see if they'd missed something, then quickly ducked behind the smokestack when the plasma tracers trained on them. Diana picked up the empty cape,then realized that the skeletal titanium supports hidden inside were providingthe human shape. A grapple gun was tied to the back, completing the effect. Diana stared grimly at the empty cape, realizing with certainty that if she had fallen for the ruse, the men in the building had been fooled as well.

"Where are they?" Tea shouted. Diana didn't have time to provide an answer as a rocket propelled grenade impacted into the smokestack above them. It didn't collapse the two hundred-foot tower of bricks, but they were showered with a pile of soot and bricks that left their dresses in tatters. They moved behind the base of the tower so the snipers wouldn't have an easy shot, searching for their teammates.

"There!" Diana replied, pointing to the rooftop. Above them, there were at least twenty men armed with plasma rifles and RPG's poured a steady stream of plasma into the smokestack. The men were discharging their weapons so quickly that they didn't notice the left and right flanks of their position being silenced one by one as two dark, stealthy figures loomed out of the blackness of the night.

Smiling that the Leaguers had just unintentionally executed a perfect pincer trap, Diana walked out from behind the smokestack to attract more attention. The stream of fire immediately shifted from thesmokestack directly onto her.Diana easily parried the plasma blasts off her bracelets right back at the snipers. She estimated there were less than ten of themremaining when two red beams shot out from Tea's blue eyes. Her beams surgically cut the remaining RPG launchers into two pieces, forcing thelastTweakersaway from their comfortable firing positions on the rooftop ledgeas the Tweakers realized that Diana and Tea were more than capable of defending themselves. Diana debated staying where they were to provide a target for the remaining plasma rifles, but decided against it when she spied an open cut on Tea's shoulder.

"You're hurt," Diana observed, then grabbed her apprentice around the waist. Diana raised them twenty feet off then ground, then quickly retreated down an alley until they were safely out of the line of fire. She set them down under a street light to inspect Tea's wound, but the blonde was adamant about getting back into the fight.

"It's only a scratch from a falling brick," Tea protested. "Let's see if they need our help."

Diana nodded in agreement, gained altitude, then doubled back to the warehouse. Batman and Nightwing were busy securing their captives with bolos and handcuffs when Diana and Tea touched down on the roof behind them. Diana immediately noticed the heat under her heels. Flames were licking at the rooftop from both sides, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the building collapsed.

"Watch their backs!" she yelled at Tea. "I'm going to find something to put out the fire."

Tea nodded then ducked as a plasma blast whistled over her shoulder. She whirled around and used her x-ray vision to see that two men had found some cover behind the elevator machinery. She started striding towards their position, angry that they were stupid enough to continue the firefight while the building went up in smoke around them, but Tea stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Miss me?" Nightwing asked with a grin.

"Something like that," she replied with a smile, then nodded over at metal shroud that hid their quarry. "Which one do you want?"

"Why not both?" he asked, tenderly tracing the cut on her shoulder with his fingertip. "Stay here," he commanded, then spun on his heels to deal with the men. He was gathering speed to leap over the machinery when she decided to aid his assault.

"Yoo hoo!" she yelled out. "Over here!"

Both men's heads appeared from behind their cover as they searched for a target, but neither man had time to react as Nightwing simultaneously connected his feet with their jaws. He somersaulted, then neatly landed behind them. Nightwing grabbed their crumpled bodies and started dragging them back to Tea's position. Batman was already with her, having taped a piece of gauze to Tea's injured shoulder.

"Where's Diana?" Nightwing asked, then his head swiveled in time to see Diana carrying a house-sized water tank that she'd borrowed from a nearby refinery. She flipped the tank on its side, causing the water to immediately start gushing out of a piece of attached pipe. Diana changed her position under the tank to direct the stream of water into the building, and within seconds the deluge of a hundred thousand gallons of water had doused most of the fire.

"There's something you don't see every day," Nightwing chortled, then watched with awe as Diana carried the now empty tank back to the refinery. He turned his attention back to Tea, reaching out with a grin to touch her hair.

"Well, there's one mystery answered."

"What mystery is that?" Tea asked.

"How you would look as a brunette," he laughed, brushing some of the black soot out of her blond locks. "How's the shoulder?"

"The shoulder's fine," Tea replied. "Just a scratch. The dress however, is completely ruined."

"Mine too," Diana said, landing next to them. She stopped right in front of Batman, then pointed to the layer of ash covering her dress. There was a smudge on each cheek and her hair was a tangled mess. "You owe me a new dress."

"I'll splurge for a full makeover," Batman replied. Motioning at their captives, he asked Diana to fly the men down to the police vans that were pulling up next to the fire trucks already dousing the remaining embers from the fire.

"What happened?" Tea asked as she watched Diana shuttle their captives down to the vans. "You get ambushed?"

"The Tweakerswere smarter than I gave them credit for," Nightwing replied. "They had a sapper charge rigged to the roof entrance to keepus out. Damn thing almost blew us to kingdom come. When the smoke cleared, we got pinned down, so I called for back-up."

"Who are these guys?" she asked.

"Hired muscle for some drug dealersthat have equiped every gang from Bludhaven to Gotham with meta-human strength and forty-watt plasma rifles," Batman replied.

"Is it just a territory war?" Tea asked, curious to learn more about Nightwing's adversaries.

Nightwing shook his head. "It goes deeper than that. Even the mob here won't mess with these guys. Whoever's behind the latest steroid upgrades, these guys mean business."

Diana touched down on the roof next to them. "All done. They were pretty motivated to protect this warehouse. What were they protecting?"

"Next step is to search their hideout," Nightwing replied. "But we really don't need back-up for the detective work."

"We don't mind staying as back-up," Diana replied. "The transporters are down and we're stranded here without a ride, so we might as well learn something fromyou detectives."

"We didn't need back-up at all," Batman growled. "And your presence won't aid our investigation."

"A polite thank-you would be nice," Diana said a hint of challenge evident as she stared back at the Dark Knight. "It's not too much to ask, considering you did manage to ruin our night on the town."

"Big date?"

"Something like that," Diana replied evasively, then she walked to what remained of the staircase. "Should we try to find out what these guys were so adamant about protecting?"

"Good idea," Nightwing replied, following her down the hatch.

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"This is a pretty low-rent lab," Tea observed as they sifted through the remains of the Tweaker's operation. The floor was still wet from the deluge of water Diana had funneled into the building to put out the fire, but the smoke had cleared enough so they didn't have to wear masks.

"Pretty shoddy stuff," Dick agreed. "But then again, it doesn't take much to make a crystal meth lab."

"The steroids are what intrigues me," Batman observed as he bagged some vials for analysis. "The stuff these guys are taking makes Barry Bonds look like a poster boy for clean living."

"Who is Barry Bonds?" Diana asked.

"Baseball reference," Batman replied. "Not important."

"It usually never is," Diana smirked, then she heard Tea's audible shriek from the corner of the room.

"What's wrong?" Nightwing asked, running to her position.

She pointed at a motorized hospital bed attached to an equipment bay. The machinery was far more sophisticated than anything else in the warehouse.

"This stuff reminds me of the equipment Cadmus had in the bio-tech lab where I was born," Tea whispered.

"Remind you of, or is it exactly like it?" Batman asked.

"It's hard to say," Tea stammered. "Some of those details have been pretty fuzzy since Kara fried me with that power coupling."

"It's important, Tea. Try to remember."

"I KNOW it's important! I just can't remember exactly what it's for."

"It reminds me of that equipment Luthor used to make his armor when he was heading up the Injustice Gang," Diana noted as she stared at the equipment, then she turned to Batman. "Do you think all of this stuff would fit in that big garbage bin outside?"

"Probably. Why?"

"Because I'd rather load it up and make one trip back to the Cave rather than make ten return trips," she replied.

"Don't you want to wait for the transporters to beam it back to the Watchtower?" Dick asked.

"That could take awhile," Diana replied. "I'll just carry it back to the Cave, and Batman can take a closer look at it."

"Do you want us to come along?" Tea asked.

"That cut of yours is starting to seep a bit," Diana observed. "Why don't you have Dick patch it up, then you can transport back to the Watchtower when it comes back on-line?"

"Are you sure?" Tea asked. "I'm more than happy to come back to the Cave."

"Batman's a little touchy about strangers messingwith his equipment," Diana noted with a wink. "Go get cleaned up. I'll catch up with you later."

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"So how do we get back to your place?" Tea asked Nightwing as they snuck out the back door of the building. Nightwing didn't answer as Diana emerged from one of the loading bays a moment later, carrying the huge garbage bin over her head. Batman was perched on top of the equipment. They quickly gained altitude then headed north-east for Gotham, disappearing a moment later into the gloom.

Nightwing didn't want to be there to inform the Fire Chief that Diana and Batman hadremoved most of the evidence from the crime scene for transport back to Gotham. Knowing the chief as he did, he thought the idea would fly about as well as a ruptured duck.

"Voila," Dick replied a moment later as he emerged from an open loading dock with his motorcycle.

"Is there room for two on that thing?" Tea asked.

"Just hold on tight," he replied, settling onto the bike. She tried to jump on behind him but her ankle length dress wouldn't allow her to straddle the back seat.

"What the hell," she muttered then reached down and tore the material at mid-thigh then hopped up behind him. "Damn dress is already ruined anyway. I don't suppose you have something comfortable I can wear while I'm at your place?"

"I think we'll find something that you can live with," he replied with a grin, then gunned the engine to head back to his loft on Printer's Row.

Neither of them noticed a humanoid figure hovering over them a thousand meters above the street.

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	5. Parent Trap

**Chapter #5 – Parent Trap**

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Despite the high-pitched whine of the two hundred horsepower engine underneath the cowling, Nightwing heard Tea's shriek of surprise as they accelerated toward a ramp that had appeared out of nowhere. She tightened her already firm grip around his waist as they went airborne over an empty concrete run-off designed to fill up during the rainy season. He landed the motorcycle on a landing ramp then leaned the frame hard to the left to avoid a large steel stanchion supporting some overhead railway tracks. Both ramps disappeared in their wake, automatically timed by their user to a proximity alert he'd activated seconds before.

Racing down the storm channel, he aligned the handlebars to ensure a head-on collision with a retaining wall on the opposite side, then shot through a gap in the retaining wall which opened when they were less than fifty feet away and closed behind them just as quickly.

They shot through a dark tunnel like a cannonball, then another ramp dropped onto the tunnel floor a hundred meters ahead. Nightwing lightly touched the brakes, then glided up the ramp. He killed the engine as they emerged onto the lower floor of his two-story loft, ceasing their forward momentum with a final, hard push on the brake.

"What the hell was that?" Tea demanded, jumping off the back of his motorcycle.

"A guy can't be too careful."

"You call jumping that concrete canyon at ninety miles per hour careful?"

"It would be a little obvious if Nightwing rode out of Dick Grayson's front door every night for patrol," he replied sheepishly. "I didn't mean to scare you, but if I told you about the jump before we took off, you might have squeezed hard enough to pop my spleen. My ribs are sore as it is."

"It's no big deal," she sputtered. "You just surprised me, that's all."

She realized she was complaining about the secret entrance to his loft. Tea knew that her complaints were probably the last thing Dick wanted to hear, so she immediately resolved to change her tone. She glanced around at the spacious, open floor plan on the lower level, which included a couch and plasma television mounted on the wall in one corner, juxtaposed with a large kitchen and breakfast bar on the other side. All of the furniture was modern, spartan and very masculine.

Tea thought it fit him perfectly.

"What do you think?" he asked, sweeping his hand around the room.

"It's awesome," she nodded in appreciation. They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, trying to figure out their next move. Tea decided to break the ice. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Sure."

"Can you take off the mask? I can see through it, but I've never seen you without the mask."

"Oops. Sorry about that. I've been wearing a mask for so long that I sometimes forget it's there," Nightwing replied. He walked a few feet away until he was standing on a large 'X' marked with duct-tape on the floor. He leaned over to flip a switch next to his computer, waited a moment as the room hummed for a moment, then removed the mask. Tea did a quick double-take seeing him without the mask, then nodded with approval. "That's better." She cocked her head, then without a word borrowed his mask and tried to put it on. It slipped off the bridge of her nose, refusing to stay in place, so she kept it there with her hand.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Is it me?"

"It works, but only if you don't have to hold it up with one hand."

"How come it stays on for you?"

"I apply electrolyte based cement on the bridge of the mask before I put it on," he explained. "It's stronger than contact cement."

"But how do you get it off without ripping off your skin?"

"That switch triggers a localized, low-radiation proton bath. It polarizes the cement, then the mask comes right off."

"Sounds like a lot of trouble just for a mask."

"Bruce…Batman and I have to go to extremes to keep our identities safe," he explained. "The glue is pretty far down the list."

"You know I'd love to hear all of your secret identity stories," Tea replied, stepping toward him until she was only inches away. "But I really could use a shower."

"Funny you should say that," Dick whispered, leaning into her, his mouth inches from hers. "I usually like to rinse off after a mission as well."

"I'd hate to see all that water go to waste," Tea replied with a wicked grin. "Care to wash my back?"

"Actually, I was hoping I could wash some of your other, more interesting parts first." Dick whispered as his lips brushed up lightly against hers.

"I guess my back can wait until later," Tea answered, then she placed her hands on the back of his head, pulling his mouth onto her own. She devoured his mouth with a ravenous hunger, probing and nipping with her teeth, lips and tongue. Her hands moved down his back, searching for the seams in his uniform. She wanted to see his flesh, to feel his naked chest pressed to her own, and her frustration mounted when she couldn't find the release.

"Here you go," he whispered, then stepped back to pull off the uniform. The boots and belt came off quickly. She tried to watch closely as he removed the uniform in case she ever got the opportunity to disrobe him again, but she felt so drunk with anticipation that it was hard to concentrate to see where the velcro catch and release systems held the uniform together. Ten seconds later, he was down to only a pair of briefs, which he left on.

"You don't wear your briefs on top like your dad?" she asked, disappointed that she wasn't yet getting full frontal view.

"That was a lifetime ago," he replied, then nodded at her. "Your turn."

"There's nothing left of this dress to take off!" she protested with a grin. Tea shrugged her shoulders, and the spaghetti straps holding up her top spilled off to her elbows. She tried wiggling the dress down over her breasts, but the girth of her bust proved too much for the material.

"You'll have to unzip me," she whispered, turning her back to him. He slowly moved the zipper down to the small of her back while he trailed the tip of his tongue down the side of her neck. A drop of sweat, mixed with soot, dripped from her jaw onto her breast as his mouth moved south from her neck.

Dick grinned and moved his head back up until his gaze locked with hers. "I think we'd better start that shower sooner rather than later."

"Lead the way," she smiled, happy to oogle his tightly sculpted rump as they walked upstairs to his bedroom.

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The skylight which comprised more than half of the loft of Dick's roof was one of the many upgrades Dick had paid for during his move to Bludhaven. After the contractor's had installed the skylight, Dick had spent an additional week building a sliding rail system powered by two garage door openers that could pull the skylight open in a matter of seconds.

It was a convenient feature, especially considering that it allowed Dick to literally drop in from a mission into his loft via the use of his gliding vanes. While he tried to protect his privacy, and his identity, by using the skylight as infrequently as possible, he'd armed the them with infra-red and motion sensors to ensure his protection if an intruder elected to follow him through on a return mission.

Given Bludhaven's seeming constant drizzle and fog, he'd never bothered to tint or polarize the windows for the sake of privacy, reasoning he really didn't require it since none of the surrounding buildings were tall enough to provide the downward angle to actually see into his loft.

In hindsight, Dick would realize the skylight was a mistake as a humanoid figure hovered only twenty feet overhead. Despite the thick, metallic armor, the humanoid was able to defy gravity with the aid of repulsor-jets firing underneath. While the mask of the armor did not reveal the identity of its occupant, there was no mistaking the fit of rage displayed when Dick and Tea appeared from the moment, racing from the bathroom to the bedroom in a fit of giddy passion.

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"I see that Master Bruce still hasn't learned how to show a lady a proper night out on the town," Alfred sniffed as Diana maneuvered the trash bin onto an open spot on the Cave floor. Batman jumped off the perch he'd maintained on top of the equipment they'd borrowed from the Tweaker's warehouse, softly landing next to Alfred.

"Problem with your cape sir?"

"No problem Alfred," Batman replied as he pulled the cowl back off his head and threw it into his chair. "It just didn't survive the evening."

Diana strode over, surprising Alfred by greeting him with a quick hug. "Good to see you again Alfred. It's been too long."

"Likewise, Princess Diana," Alfred replied with a warm, genuine smile. He backed away after a moment, but he saw Diana blanche with embarrassment as she stared intently at his face. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

"Please, Alfred. Call me Diana," she replied with a dazzling smile. "And to answer your question, no, there's nothing in your teeth. I seem to have brought most of the soot in Bludhaven back in my hair. I just smudged your face."

"A small price to pay for the pleasure of your company," Alfred replied. He turned his smudged cheek and leaned his face to her for cleaning.

She searched the Cave for something to clean off the soot. The spartan décor of the Cave was so perfectly Bruce that only the computer, some tools, and the glass-encased memorabilia from his greatest foes were on display. Out of options, she stared at the cowl hanging over the back of the chair. Diana contemplated shredding the inside lining for use as a make-shift handiwipe, but Alfred silently produced a handkerchief from his pocket.

"

"It's good to see that somebody around here knows how to treat a lady," Diana smiled and started to wipe his face, then frowned when she realized it wasn't coming off as easily as she'd hoped.

"I often find myself forced to make up for the Master's short-comings," Alfred replied dryly. He held up his hand as a signal for Diana to stop cleaning when he spied Bruce frowning at them out the corner of his eye. "Don't trouble yourself any further, Miss Diana. I will scrub myself clean upstairs, or more than likely I might choose to leave the smudge as a memorial to your kindness and beauty. In the meantime, allow me to run a bath and find some clean clothes to replace that dress, if you can still call it that."

"You are too kind," Diana replied. She watched the butler disappear up the stairs to the Manor, then sighed as she heard the door shut behind him.

She turned to find Bruce already connecting a local network circuit board to the back of the equipment they'd transported to the Cave. Diana shook her head, wondering inwardly if he ever slowed down, then mentally kicked herself as she already knew the answer. "You're lucky that I haven't hired Alfred away."

"I doubt that you'd have to offer him top dollar," Bruce replied as he powered up the systems. "I know that he looks forward to your visits."

"As do I, Bruce," Diana muttered. "Though for the life of me I can't figure out why."

He stared at her and their eyes locked for a moment. Diana thought she detected a slight diminution of his indomitable will as his eyes flickered momentarily with doubt, but the opportunity was lost when he returned to the task of connecting the interfaces between the Tweakers computer and his own.

"I take it this project is going to take awhile?" Diana asked.

"Uh huh," he nodded, not paying any attention to her as he immersed himself in the task at hand.

"Long enough for me to take a bath with Alfred?" she asked, baiting Bruce to see if he was paying attention.

"Uh huh," he affirmed, studying the cables intently.

"Men and their toys," Diana muttered, rolling her eyes in frustration as she walked up the steps.

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Tea moaned with pleasure as Dick's hands completed the round-robin swoop over her torso, ending as they had before with a long, gentle tug at her nipples. They'd long since washed the soot and grime out of her hair, but neither of them felt compelled to stop searching for other places that might have gone unwashed.

She stood facing away from him, luxuriating in the hot stream and his persistent touch, but the ache between her legs grew so persistent that she couldn't stand it any longer.

Tea turned to face him, grasping his rigid member in her hand and she kissed him long and hard. She leaned her head back into the stream of water, drank some into her mouth, then playfully spat it back onto his glistening chest. He started to protest, but elected not to complain when Tea knelt down to take him in her mouth.

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"I trust that everything is satisfactory?" Alfred asked.

"Of course it is," Diana said, staring at the expanse of the master bedroom. "After all, I lived in the Manor for a month after Bruce blew up the first watchtower."

"The Master does have his destructive impulses," Alfred noted drolly, then stared awkwardly at her dress. "I take it that your uniform is still on the Watchtower?"

Diana nodded.

"In that case, I will lay out some suitable garments for you to wear after your bath."

"Where did you find the time to buy me some clothes?" Diana asked, her eyes narrowing with an unspoken accusation. "Did you know I was coming here tonight?"

"Rest assured, I would be more than ecstatic if Master Bruce spent his free hours devising schemes which would bring you to the Manor on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, he applies his considerable talents towards other endeavors. As for the clothes, Master Bruce once told me to prepare for all kind of contingencies with respect to his teammates. There are extra suits for Mr. Kent, dresses for you and Miss Shayera, casual clothes for Misters Stewart and West."

"I see," Diana replied evenly, but Alfred could see the disappointment etched on her face.

"It's not that Master Bruce doesn't care for you," Alfred said hurriedly. "It's just that he's rather stunted in the means that he goes about showing it."

"I keep telling myself that But to be honest, lately it's gotten harder to do."

"Master Bruce has a way of wearing people out," Alfred observed. "But he also has a strange way of drawing people in. He's just never been good at maintaining a balance. It used to drive Master Dick crazy. By the way, where is Master Dick?"

"He took my apprentice – Power Girl – back to his place to clean up," Diana replied, then she stared down at her own dress with a grimace. "Speaking of which, not that I don't love talking to you Alfred, but I need to clean up. I'm a mess."

"Never in my eyes, Miss Diana," Alfred said. "You'll find that the bath is already prepared. And I took the liberty of adding some lavender foam salts."

"You are too kind," Diana said, then turned and marched for the bathroom.

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Bruce sat in front of the monitor, quickly paginating through a databank of records. Some of the data was damaged from the fire and the subsequent deluge of water, but he'd managed to download ninety percent of the remaining data from the motherboards.

The problem that he faced was that the computer language paginating by on the screen above him was unfamiliar. He forwarded the contents of the database directly to the Monitor Womb, then called Mr. Terrific on the video interface after pulling the cowl back down over his face.

"Batman," Mr. Terrific said, not bothering to look at the camera to see who was calling. His eyes were riveted on the pages of programming language downloading onto his system. "What are you sending me?".

"A copy of the databanks we retrieved from the Tweakers," Batman replied. "I've never seen anything like it. You recognize the programming language?"

"Pieces of it," Mr. Terrific replied, then he sat forward and let out a whistle.

"Well?Don't keep me in suspense."

"It looks like a new syntax of LISP," Mr. Terrific said with a shrug.

"I know LISP," Batman replied, shaking his head in disagreement. "Hardac used LISP. This isn't LISP."

"It's a derivative of LISP," Mr. Terrific replied, still scanning the code intently. "Probably one of those interfaces for Artificial Intelligence that LISP programmers have been working on."

"Why would the Tweakers have a computer loaded up with AI?" Batman asked, rubbing his temples thoughtfully. "It doesn't make sense."

"What was the computer attached to?"

"A medical bay."

"Did you run a DNA sweep on the equipment? Whoever's going to all this trouble may be in our database."

"It's the last thing on my list," Batman replied. "It will take an hour or two to scan for DNA residues. Want to beam down here and help me take a look at it?"

"Transporters are still off-line," Mr. Terrific noted with a sigh. "We had another surge in the induction lines. Blew half of the transmission pads. I can take a Javelin down in an hour when our orbit takes us back over North America."

"Don't trouble yourself," Batman said with a wave. "I've got all the equipment down here that we need. The transporters are your first priority. Get them working ASAP."

"Can do," Mr. Terrific nodded. "By the way, do I owe Diana a new dress?"

"Two dresses," Batman answered. "Tea's is ruined as well."

"I'll get Edna working on it. Where are the ladies now?"

"Tea is with Nightwing in Bludhaven and Diana is here at the Manor. Why do you ask?"

"Have to update the duty roster to see who's not stranded up here on the Watchtower," Mr. Terrific noted. "Let me know what you find."

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As usual, Alfred had outdone himself in an attempt to ensure Diana's comfort. She'd found the oversized tub filled with almost intolerably hot water, topped off with bubbles that were near to overflowing onto the travertine deck. As she listened to a Mozart symphony warbling from a hidden speaker system in the walls, Diana luxuriated in the soft fragrance of the lavender salts. The calming effects of the bubble bath were a welcome distraction from her current predicament, but she was so comfortable in the tub that she didn't really care what Bruce was doing downstairs.

"There's a jacuzzi massage system on that panel to your right," Bruce observed from the doorway. "It helps work out the kinks in your neck."

"I was hoping that tonight you might make that your responsibility," Diana replied, turning her head languidly to face him. "The circulating pump makes too much noise for my taste."

"I'll have to wrap some more insulation around it," Bruce replied.

Diana grinned at the oversized terrycloth robe he was wearing.

"Planning on joining me? The tub is big enough for two."

"It's big enough for three, to be honest," Bruce's eyes twinkled. "But no, I didn't come up here to join you."

"A pity," Diana sighed. "Any progress on your project downstairs?"

"The scanners are searching for any traces of DNA."

"What about interrogating the Tweakers?"

"Useful when they come down off that steroid-meth cocktail they've been taking. They won't be much use to us for another day or two."

"Databanks?"

"I've got Mr. Terrific working on deciphering the programming language. He's worked with more AI programs than me."

Diana raised her hand to her forehead in dismay. "I can't believe I forgot to check in with him."

"Don't bother.He knows where you are."

"He knows I'm taking a bath in your tub? Now THAT is a conversation I would love to hear."

"I didn't go into that much detail."

"How long until the transporters are working?"

"Probably a few hours at least. The pads are fried."

"Again? Last time those blew, it took Steel three days to fix them."

"Looks like you and Tea are stuck with us."

"Speaking of which, have you talked to Dick since we left them? I might as well let her know there's no rush to get back to the Watchtower since the transporters aren't working."

Diana reached up to trigger her comm. link. "Power Girl? This is Diana."

There was no response on the line, so Bruce triggered his own. "Nightwing, this is Bruce. Can you hear me?"

"We can't talk right now," Dick's voice wheezed. In the background, Tea's voice could be heard urging him on, then the link was terminated from the other side.

Bruce watched Diana's eyes grow wide with amazement when they both realized that they'd been listening to the sounds of carnal delight. Diana turned her head away in embarrassment while Bruce found himself staring at the ceiling, desperately trying not to notice that the bubbles covering Diana's breasts had largely dissipated.

Diana glanced at him again, then glanced downwards when she realized that she was no longer covered under the protection of the bubbles.

"That was weird," she finally allowed.

"Uh huh."

"Did you have any idea that they were - "

"No." Bruce interrupted.

"They've known each other for a day and already they're…"

"Yes."

"Kind of unfair, don't you think?" Diana asked.

"Unfair? How?"

"We've known each other for three years now and you won't even work out the kinks in my neck or join me for an innocent bath when invited, but they already know each other biblically."

"Biblically?"

"Too much time around Wally. Stop trying to change the subject."

"Regarding that, the problem is that a bath with you would hardly be innocent."

"Is that a promise?" Diana grinned. "Because if it is, we might be making some progress."

"It's not that I don't want to Diana," Bruce replied with a heavy sigh. "I just think it's dangerous for two people who work together to get involved."

"Your objections are duly noted," Diana said, then reached over to hand him a sponge and a brush. "But that doesn't mean you can't wash my back in the meantime."

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"Was it my imagination, but when we were having sex, did I hear Diana call me on the comm. link?" Tea asked Dick.

She was sprawled on top of him as they lay in his bed. Her hair was still damp from the shower, but there were no traces of the soot and grime she'd been covered with when he'd brought her home.

"You weren't imagining things. They called in just when I was about to…finish," he replied. "I told them we'd call back later."

"Diana is going to kill me," she groaned, rolling off him onto her back. Her head landed on the pillow next to his, then she curled up with him until their faces were only inches apart.

"Was everything okay?" Tea asked, an expression of concern evident on her face.

He nodded quickly. "It was more than okay. It was great. Why do you ask?"

"I'm kind of new at this, so I wanted to ask."

"Kind of new, as in a virgin?"

She nodded.

He shook his head in disbelief. "I never would have guessed. You seemed to have a pretty good idea on what you wanted to do."

"I never told you the whole story, but those shared dreams with Kara were pretty graphic. She wasn't quite the little miss goody two-shoes that she wanted everyone to believe."

"Barb told me that Kara's behavior when they were on a ski-trip up to Vermont was a little over the top, but I didn't know about that."

"Barb?"

"My ex."

"Is she Batgirl?"

"How did you know that?"

"She and Kara were friends, right?"

"I think so," Dick replied. "We dated while, but it didn't work out."

"Are you sure it's over?"

"Barb's gotten a little pyscho as of late," Dick confided. "I think she even had a crush on Bruce for awhile, though she never admitted it."

"He's like a father figure to you guys, isn't he?" Tea asked with a frown. "Gross."

Dick didn't have time to reply as his peripheral vision picked up a shadow in the skylight, hurtling downwards. He rolled towards her side of the bed, pulling her onto the floor underneath him as a humanoid figure covered with metallic armor crashed through the skylight. The glass shattered and rained down from the skylight onto the bed as the intruder landed with a thump onto the floor ten feet away.

Shoving Tea behind him, Dick stood up to face the armored figure. "Who are you?" Dick shouted.

"I'm Ruin," a metallic voice responded from inside the armor, then the intruder raised his hand in a blur of motion. A plasma beam caught Dick in the shoulder as he tried to roll away from the line of fire, driving him back against the wall. The force of the impact knocked him unconscious, and his naked body contorted at an odd angle against the wall.

"Murderer!" Tea seethed. Paying no attention to her lack of clothing, she stood up to face their attacker. Concentrating her full powers, her eyes blazed a blinding flash of heat vision as she started cutting through the armor.

"Don't you know who I am, Tea? Or is your x-ray vision not working yet?" the metallic void chided. "I've come to save you."

Tea immediately ceased burning through the armor as she realized the intruder's identity.

"Daddy?"


	6. Field Dressing

Chapter #6 – Field Dressing

The helmet nodded in acknowledgment of Tea's query, then the man raised his right hand to open a small panel embedded in the armor covering his left forearm. A panel opened, revealing an alpha-numeric keypad like that of a telephone. Ruin inputted a three-digit code, resulting in a metallic click, then the helmet disengaged from the magnetic coupler that was attached to the neck-ring of the armor.

The helmet dropped to the floor, revealing the haggard visage of Professor Emil Hamilton.

"Daddy?" Tea softly repeated, astonished that he was here in the same room. Realizing that she was still naked, Tea hurriedly rushed to cover herself with a sheet. As she wrapped herself up, Tea cautiously retreated to the far wall to check on Dick. His head lolled to one side and for a moment she wondered whether Ruin's attack had proved fatal.

She breathed a sigh of relief when her hearing picked up the labored, albeit shallow, sounds of his breathing. Tea performed a quick x-ray and winced when she spied three cracked ribs, but she was more concerned about the large amount of internal bleeding. An interlobar artery leading from his left kidney was hemorrhaging blood into his abdomen. She didn't know if the hemorrhage would prove fatal, but given the amount of blood already inhibiting the rise and fall of his diaphragm, Tea reasoned that it made sense to use her powers to heal his wounds.

Gingerly, she turned him over until the angle was perfect, then narrowed the beam on her heat vision. The initial blasts neatly cleaved through his oblique muscle, then she cauterized the leaking artery with a second, pinpoint blast. Suturing the wound with her heat blasts proved more difficult than she'd thought. She was glad that Dick was unconscious as the pain and smell of burning flesh would have been difficult for an alert patient to bear.

"Alive, I take it?" Hamilton asked dryly, though from the tone of his voice Tea could tell he was indifferent to Dick's status.

"He's fine now," she retorted. "Why did you try to kill him?"

"My weapon was set to stun. But I hadn't anticipated using it in such close proximity." Hamilton shrugged. "But the important thing is that you are safe and we're back together."

"Together?" Tea asked with a frown. "What did you call yourself? Ruin?"

"I had to adopt a new identity when Cadmus decided to disavow all of their scientists. Without their funding, and since the rest of academia and Star Labs treated me as persona non grata, I had to find an alternative means to protect my interests."

"So why partner up with the Tweakers?"

"They needed my concoctions to fuel their ambitions, while I needed the money they earned from their robberies and drug-running to pay for my equipment. It was a mutually beneficial relationship, but it wasn't destined to be a long-term one. After their money paid for the last of my upgrades, I was preparing to sever my arrangement with them, but your friend and Batman decided to drop in ahead of schedule. It's ironic that you showed up at the Tweaker's hideout, but as they say, timing is everything. I was going to come for you eventually, but I decided to accelerate my plans the moment that I saw you."

"So you followed me back here?" Tea challenged. "How long have you been watching us?"

"Long enough to be disappointed that beautiful, beautiful Galatea turned out to be a whore for a third-rate member of the Justice League," Hamilton replied with an unsettling leer. "But now that we're together, I'll have plenty of time to re-educate you about your true destiny."

"What do you keep saying that we're together again?" Tea asked, backing into the corner of the room until there was nowhere else to go.

"Poor, misguided Galatea," Hamilton cooed. "All those times you called me Daddy. You never understood that my love for you was far more than paternal."

"You're in love with me?" Tea asked in shock her eyes visibly in shock. "That is beyond gross."

"I'm sure you'll feel differently once I've had a chance to re-educate you," Hamilton replied. He raised his hand in invitation. "Come, Galatea. There is much to do."

Tea shook her head in disgust, and there was steel in her voice for the first time since his entry into the loft. "I'm sorry, but my place is with the League. I'm Power Girl now, not Galatea. I don't want to be her again, and I don't want to be with you. You are just a sick, twisted, old letch."

"It wasn't as if I was giving you a choice," Hamilton said. "It's time to go."

"I don't think so," Tea said. Her eyes started to glow visibly red as she powered up her heat vision again to assault his armor, but before she could unleash her attack, Ruin raised his hand. A red energy beam emanated from a shoulder mounted blaster, and everything went black.

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"I think half of that smokestack is floating around in my tub," Bruce observed casually as he scrubbed the soot and grime from Diana's back. Wrapped in his robe, he was kneeling on the travertine floor with a bottle of body wash in one hand and a derma-brush in the other.

Diana peeked down at the murky water, grimaced with disgust, then pulled the plug. Hoping to replace the soot-stained water with hot, unspoiled water, she turned on the water again. It was probably a vain hope, but it beat the alternative of doing nothing.

"You're not going to start brooding about your bathtub, are you?"

"It was an observation, and I would never brood about a grimy bathtub."

"Please. You brood about everything else, why would you stop there?"

Bruce remained silent to that particular rejoinder. Diana noticed that he was no longer engaging in their banter, so she decided to shift the conversation again. "This really isn't all that comfortable."

"What's wrong?"

"The tub is six feet long one way and three feet wide another. And since you're making me sit on the short side, I can't stretch out."

"What do you propose?"

"Can I move over to the long end and stretch out?"

"My arms aren't long enough to reach that far."

"So sit on the deck and dangle your feet in the tub. I won't bite."

"Seems like a lot of effort just to remove the soot, and I've seen you do a lot worse things to people than bite."

"I'm the one who had the smokestack fall on me, remember? I think I deserve a little credit here."

"…."

"I take it that means yes? Good. Now get over here and help me get cleaned up."

He stood up, took a half step backwards. By reading his body language alone, Diana could sense that he was searching for an excuse to leave the room. She decided not to give him a chance, so she slid sideways, providing ample room to allow him to step around her and over to the safety of the deck.

"Come on in," Diana said nonchalantly. "The water's fine."

Bruce hesitated for a moment, then finally relented. He stepped into the water behind her, turned and quickly sat down on the travertine deck. There wasn't enough room to stretch out his legs on the deck, so he placed his feet back into the water. Positioning himself with a muffled grunt, he moved his feet wide enough apart on either side of the tub so that she could lay back against the bathtub wall beneath him. Bruce started scrubbing her back and neck again to clean away the last remnants of the grime and soot, but the last traces of the material proved more difficult to remove. He increased the pace and pressure of his scrubbing, but smears on her neck were resisting his best attempts.

Bruce was so focused on scrubbing the grime off Diana that he didn't notice the lower half of his robe slowly soaking in the water until it was dripping wet. He finally felt the change in its weight then muttered an inaudible obscenity when he realized his robe was soaked through. Bruce dropped the brush into the tub behind her to free up his hands to wring the water out of the robe. He tried to squeeze out the water but it was no use. Undaunted, he set about securing the lower, wet folds of the robe under his rump to keep the remaining dry half out of the water. It solved one problem, but created another as he wasn't wearing anything underneath the robe. The lack of material in front meant that his private parts were on full display, though Diana's back was still facing him. He considered his options as his lack of cover was further exacerbated by the fact that his legs were straddled on either side of Diana's hips, so he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

She finally noticed his discomfort. "Problem?"

"My robe is soaking wet."

"All of it?" Diana called back.

"Just the bottom half."

"Not exactly a Greek tragedy." She turned around in the tub. Bruce tried to twist his body and close his legs quickly enough to shield himself from her gaze, but her eyes piqued with interest when she realized what she was staring at.

"Let me put something else on, then I'll finish up your back," he murmured, averting his eyes with what seemed to be embarrassment as he started to ease himself off the deck.

"I have a better idea," she purred, then tugged on both of his ankles. He grunted in surprise then landed with a splash in the tub. His legs straddled hers all too comfortably. "That better?" Diana asked, gently nuzzling his neck.

"Not exactly what I had in mind."

"You walked in here to check up on me, remember? I'd say it's exactly what you had on your mind."

"Maybe," he replied. "But I'm a little old fashioned about these things. I usually spring for a dinner date first."

"I would have agreed to a date, but short of that, I could think of worse places," Diana replied with a shrug. Grinning, she placed her left hand on his chest then gently pushed him until his back was pressed against the end of the tub. Next, she pushed his legs apart until they were straddled on either side of her hips, then raised her feet over his legs until they were straddling his own hips. The position left her forced her to sit upright in the tub which meant that her breasts were resting just above the waterline, no longer shrouded in the cover of bubbles.

Bruce concentrated his gaze upon her, then raised an eyebrow, evidently questioning the method to her madness without saying a word. He looked more confused when Diana made a show of plunging her hands under the bubbles. "Where is that brush?" she asked with an innocent, but knowing expression. Not finding it, her hand snaked up his thigh until she was holding his length in her grasp. "Why Mr. Wayne, this doesn't feel like a brush to me, though I think it might be bigger. Whatever shall we do with it?"

Diana debated whether to take him in her mouth but she had no desire to duck her head beneath the murky water. Tabling the idea for later, she nipped at his mouth while their hands started to explore part of their bodies that up till now, had only been dreamed about. His fingers sent waves of pleasure cascading through her body. Grinding rhythmically against his hand, Diana partially raised herself out of the water to hasten his ministrations. Her hips bucked in response as he increased the tempo, but the desire to take him inside of her proved overpowering.

Without a word, she raised her legs and straddled her ankles around his waist. Reaching down to guide him, Diana arched her back and eased herself onto him. She bit down on her tongue to muffle a yelp as the sensation of him entering her was not unwelcome, but unfamiliar nevertheless. Bruce went still below her, and she knew with certainty that he was allowing her to completely control the process. It warmed her, knowing that he was trying to minimize her discomfort. Using that to steel her resolve, Diana plunged fully onto his length, taking all of him into her.

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As the stars cleared from his vision, Dick groaned with effort to move his body into an upright position. He tried to push off the floor with his right hand, but a cascade of pain shot down his side. Dick muffled a scream, knowing it might attract the attention of the intruder.

Still laying on his side, he steeled himself to accept the pain, then pushed himself off the floor once more. There was no sign of the intruder. Dick admitted a sense of relief as he wasn't looking forward to taking another blast from Ruin's plasma emitter. He realized he was out of danger for the moment, but a quick sweep of the room told him that Tea was missing.

Angry that he'd been caught defenseless in his own home, Dick gingerly stood up and looked around for any trace of them. The glass from the skylight was scattered in pieces around the bedroom, so he crawled over the bed to find a pair of shoes he kept under the bed. He threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt for good measure, not wanting to try another face to face with Ruin in his birthday suit.

Satisfied there was no trace of his quarry in the bedroom, Dick bounded downstairs to his computer. He entered a series of passwords, then queued up a copy of the digital security system that protected his loft. Dick rewound the playback from the four cameras strategically placed around his loft to the moment where he and Tea had started making love, sped through those scenes at four times the normal rate, then watched the recording at normal speed from the moment when Ruin plunged through the skylight. It was odd watching himself confronting Ruin in the nude. Dick actually winced when he saw himself bounce off the wall, then he felt his heart skip a beat as the still nude Tea came to his aid, burning the intruder's armor with her heat vision. Oddly enough, she stopped her attack only moments later. Puzzled, Dick increased the volume gain to near maximum so he could hear the conversation.

He felt his eyes almost bulge out of their sockets in disbelief when Ruin revealed his true identity. Dick raised his hand to his ear to activate the JL comm. link, but brought it back down when he watched Tea tend to his wounds. He reached down to feel the scar from her surgery, then pulled his fingertips away, surprised that it was still warm to the touch.

Seething with rage, Dick watched the rest of the tape as Hamilton knocked out Power Girl with a blast of red energy – Dick thought it likely something from the spectrum of a red-sun – then Hamilton dressed Tea's comatose figure in a spare Nightwing costume Ruin had found in the back of his closet. Ruin slung Tea's body over his shoulder, then levitated out of the loft a moment later. Judging from the time stamp on the security system, Ruin had abducted Tea five minutes before Dick regained consciousness.

Convinced he'd learned everything he needed to know from the surveillance system, Dick raised his fingers to his ear a second time to activate the JL comm. link. "Batman, Nightwing here. We have an emergency."

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Bruce was aware that a voice other than Diana's was calling his name, but he was so immersed in the vision of watching Diana rock back and forth on top of him that he couldn't determine the identity of the caller. The fog of ecstasy of making love with Diana was so intoxicating it took his brain more than a minute to register that Dick was repeatedly calling an Omega level alert on the JL comm. link.

The one remaining lucid part of his brain finally commanded Bruce to remove his left hand from Diana's right breast long enough to accept the incoming communication. Bruce saw Diana's eyes harden with anger that he was interrupting her rhythm to take the incoming call, but he felt her quiet the rocking motion of her hips enough so their caller wouldn't hear the sounds of their bodies slapping together in the tub. Bruce raised his hand to silence her as she started to pout in protest that he'd ceased the ministrations of her chest. Diana pointed at her own communicator, silently asking whether she should listen in on the conversation. Bruce shook his head, but he instantly regretted doing so as Diana instead focused her energies on her core to maintain a rhythm.

"Batman here," Bruce replied, then grunted as Diana made a circular motion with her hips that sent a shock of electricity through his body. He tried to give Diana a warning glare to cease her activity, but she'd already closed her eyes to concentrate on the part of him that was slowly pistoning to her depths. "What's wrong, Dick?" Bruce finally rasped.

"Where have you been?" Dick's voice chided over the link. "I haven't been able to reach you."

"Indisposed," Bruce replied while Diana leaned into him. The action brought her chest tantalizing close to his mouth. He gently moved his head sideways, his chin barely grazing the round, firm globe as he tried to concentrate on Dick's emergency. "What's wrong?"

"I'm assuming you're familiar with the man responsible for Tea's cloning?"

"Dr. Hamilton," Bruce replied impatiently. "What's wrong?"

"Hamilton calls himself Ruin these days. I know this because he forced his way in here a half an hour ago, nearly killed me and abducted Tea."

Shocked by Dick's revelation, Bruce sat up so quickly that he bumped heads with Diana. She uttered a protest loud enough to be picked up on the comm. link. Embarrassed, they stared at each other awkwardly, then Diana triggered her own comm. link to listen to the conversation.

"Dick, this is Diana. Care to bring me up to speed?"

"Sorry to interrupt," Dick replied. Diana was glad that he was polite enough to avoid asking her why she was so close to Bruce, but if she'd thought about it, she would have realized that the comm. links were sensitive enough to pick up the ambient sounds of the water dripping off her breasts. Diana listened intently as Dick repeated the same information he'd already told Bruce.

"Sounds like Hamilton's obsession was fueled by more than just revenge," Diana observed. "Why don't you have Mr. Terrific download our file on Hamilton so you can read it? I'll see if I can find a fresh change of clothes and we'll be there in a few minutes."

"Sounds good. See you in a few," Dick replied, then signed off.

Diana made sure the line was clear, then sighed with disappointment that they'd been interrupted, especially when they were so close to their own climaxes. She debated for a moment about trying to redouble their efforts to achieve some kind of relief from the ache of the interruption. She dismissed the idea when Bruce shifted with discomfort beneath her, angry that his son had been in jeopardy only minutes before. Diana knew he was anxious, but before she pulled away from him, Diana leaned in and softly brushed her lips against his.

"Take a raincheck?" she asked with a wan smile of regret.

"Later," he replied with a curt nod.

Diana rolled her eyes in frustration that the moment was broken, then felt a moment of emptiness as he slid out of her body. She climbed out of the tub and grabbed the nearest towel from the rack. Diana dabbed the water away from her chin as Bruce emerged from the tub to stand next to her. Diana was fascinated to watch his length return to its original size, so she bent down to towel off her legs, all the while sneaking an occasional glance at the member which had just taken her virginity.

Diana dried the remaining swatches of water of her body, then wrapped a towel around her chest as Bruce finished. She waited for him expectantly, and he finally caught the meaning of her expression.

"Problem?"

"My armor is still on the Watchtower," Diana replied with an embarrassed grin. "I don't suppose you have an extra uniform laying around that I could borrow?"

"I'll see what Alfred can come up with, but you're still wearing your bracelets. Should we call Clark in on this now, or do you want to wait until we have all the facts at hand?"

"She's my apprentice," Diana replied. "I'm responsible for her, so I should be the one to find her."

"Noted, but let's call Mr. Terrific and let him know what's going on in the meantime. It may make sense to launch the strike team in the Javelin to back us up."

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"Give me one more minute, I'm almost done with the file," Nightwing said as Diana gently lowered Bruce and herself down through the skylight until softly landing on the ground floor of the loft. Not bothering to turn around from his computer monitor, he scanned the last pages of the JL's extensive dossier on Hamilton's background, which focused on his time working for Star Labs and Cadmus.

"Take your time," Batman replied. "Where were you when Ruin came in?"

"Upstairs in bed," Dick admitted sheepishly, not bothering to tell them that Tea had been with him at the time. He turned to nod a greeting at Diana, but he reeled back in the chair in surprise when he spied her costume. She was wearing a modified black costume that Bruce had worn in previous years, without the cowl or cape, but her boots looked to be a pair that he'd left at the Cave a few years before after a particularly disgusting battle with Clayface. "Nice look," he observed with a grin. "The boots fit okay?"

"The heels could be higher, but other than that I have no complaints," she replied. "How do you feel?"

Dick shook his head. "Tea managed to repair some internal bleeding before he took her out."

"Why didn't the alarm linked to the Cave get tripped?" Batman demanded, staring at the skylight from the staircase.

"Tea and I got a little distracted getting cleaned up." Dick sighed. "I forgot to rearm the system after we got back."

"It's not like it really matters, does it?" Diana interjected. "I mean, it's not like we could have gotten here fast enough to stop him. The important thing is that you're all right. We'll find Tea soon enough."

"She's got a point," Nightwing nodded, then he pointed at the computer. "I'm assuming you want to see the recordings?"

"I'd like to see what we're up against," Batman admitted, then settled into Dick's chair.

Nightwing nodded, then turned to Diana. "I'm not sure if you'll want to see this. Tea and I were…"

"Romantically engaged?" Diana suggested, filing in the words he was desperately trying to avoid.

"Exactly!"

"You weren't the only one who got lucky tonight," Diana replied with a wink. "I'll try to avert my eyes if I see anything graphic."

Dick did a double-take that she'd confirmed what he already suspected. He stared alternately at Batman and Diana to determine if there was any lingering sexual tension between the two of them, but neither betrayed any additional signs that they'd just had sex. He was amazed that they could turn it off so quickly, but then again he'd known Bruce for years, and in the brief moments he'd spent with Diana, Dick had gotten the strong impression that Diana's intensity rivaled Bruce's.

They played the recordings twice. Standing next to Diana, Dick felt a little embarrassed to be watching a homemade porn tape of himself and Tea, but to her credit she maintained a professional detachment as she watched the tape.

"Can we track her comm. link?" Diana asked thoughtfully when the recordings were over.

Dick shook his head and pointed to Tea's ear-piece on the kitchen table. "Apparently he knew about that and took it out."

"He's severed ties with the Tweakers here in Bludhaven," Batman mused. "So that means he's on the run. He has to have a safe house, but it's got to have the equipment and the power necessary to power that suit."

"What is the suit made of?" Dick asked. "By the looks of it, even Tea was having a hard time cutting through it with her heat vision."

"I'm not sure how fully her powers have been manifested." Batman shrugged. "But it looks like Ruin's wearing a version of the battle suit Luthor used to wear a few years ago, albeit with some upgrades."

"An abandoned Cadmus facility perhaps?" Diana suggested.

"More like one of Star Labs or Luthor's old operations," Batman replied. "Cadmus spent most of their research dollars on cloning more Ultimen, as well as Tea and Doomsday. I don't recall Cadmus having any kind of battle-suit operations."

"So let's call in our resident expert on Luthor and Star Labs," Nighwing said. "This looks like a job for Superman."


	7. Damsel

Chapter #7 - Damsel

Clark Kent had spent the better part of the afternoon and most of the evening interviewing the residents of a slum apartment building in Harlem. The building stood only a few blocks north of Columbia University. Despite its run-down condition, a developer from the Lower East Side had purchased the building a few weeks before. That had excited some comment in the neighborhood, but a howl of protest had arisen when the new owner promptly served an eviction notice to all of the residents that required them to move out by the end of the month. The new owner had already procured the approvals necessary to renovate the building as high-priced condominiums, and forcing two hundred residents to find new housing was the last step towards accomplishing this plan.

Perry had assigned Clark the story that morning, noting that the assignment represented the start of a lengthy series he would be writing about the regentrification of Harlem and other low income neighborhoods.

While Clark's income as a reporter was far higher than the residents who lived there, rental prices for apartments in Manhattan had gotten so outrageous for low and middle-income residents that he could sympathize with their plight. At the same time, he couldn't help but notice what the on-going redevelopment was doing for the neighborhood, as a number of trendy restaurants and other higher end retail chains had recently relocated to there, replacing liquor stores and fast food restaurants which catered to the homeless and lower income residents.

Clark was busy looking at his notes, eating a slice of meat-lover's pizza at a corner table in a new pizzeria, when his JL comm. link went active. The newer and much improved comm. links announced the identity of the callers, so he knew Batman was on the line. To avoid the curiousity of his neighbors, he pretended to tap the bluetooth headset clipped to the top of his ear.

"What's up?" Clark asked casually between mouthfuls.

"Where are you?" Batman asked.

"A pizzeria in Harlem. One hundred and fifteenth street and Eighth Avenue, to be exact. What's up?"

"I'll tell you on the landing pad at the Metro Tower in fifteen minutes."

Clark opened his mouth to pursue his inquiry, but a click on his comm. link told him the line was already dead. He wolfed down the last few bites of the pizza and paid the bill while he contemplated his assignment from Perry. Missions with Batman were usually all-nighters, and despite the immense physical gifts a Kryptonian was afforded by living in the Terran system, he still required a good night's sleep. He'd already figured the article would need at least ten typewritten pages for a two or three-part series, therefore, he'd be lucky to get any sleep before his deadline. He walked out of the pizzeria, turned left into an alleyway, passing two trucks off-loading restaurant supplies into the pantries. He ducked into an empty loading dock, took one last look to make sure no one was watching, then changed into his uniform. A blast of wind generated by his quick change pushed his glasses off the stool where he'd placed them. He found them floating in a garbage can filled with refried beans and other waste from a tacqueria.

"Looks like its going to be one of those nights," he sighed.

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Superman landed on top of the Metro Tower three minutes ahead of the appointed time. He hoped he would be the first to arrive but to his chagrin, Batman and Nightwing were already waiting for him. Clark had known Batman long enough to know that if Batman had foregone his usual grand entrance, then the situation must be dire.

He touched down next to the Batwing then did a quick double-take when Diana emerged from behind the plane. She was wearing one of Bruce's old uniforms. He tried not to stare, but it was hard to imagine Diana without her Wonder Woman costume to begin with, and the swirl of the black cape and bat-emblem on her chest was shocking.

"Dry cleaner busy?" he asked her with an innocent smile.

Diana gave him a mock scowl, but shrugged her shoulders in response. "Transporters are down, and we got caught planet-side responding to a situation in Bludhaven."

"We?"

"Tea and I were at the U.N. and responded to Bruce and Dick's emergency call. Needless to say, my dress is not in good shape, so I had to borrow a uniform from Bruce."

"Where is Tea?" Superman asked, swiveling his head to see if he'd missed her.

"That's what we called you about." Dick stepped forward. "Professor Hamilton kidnapped her."

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"So what can you tell us about Professor Hamilton?" Batman asked.

Superman shook his head in response as he processed what his teammates told him about the abduction. Even after reviewing a digital photo from Dick's security system, Clark was still shocked that Hamilton had committed such an audacious kidnapping.

"I still can't believe he was the top scientist for Cadmus, much less responsible for kidnapping Tea," Clark replied, still in disbelief.

"How long have you known him?" Nightwing asked.

"Six years. When I first came to Metropolis, I didn't understand a lot about the technology my father had sent along with me in the spaceship. Professor Hamilton came well recommended as a conscionable scientist who wouldn't exploit the technology for criminal uses. We struck up an alliance and even a friendship, of sorts. He deciphered a lot of secrets about the Kryptonian technology. In turn, I think his professional curiosity was satisfied by working with the equipment. He was instrumental in working out the mechanics of the Phantom Zone projector, along with a lot of other stuff."

"What happened?" Nightwing asked.

"It all changed when Darkseid kidnapped, then brainwashed me. I'm sure you remember when I led his invasion campaign against Earth. Kara tried to stop me, but she took the brunt of a kryptonite blast Luthor hoped would kill the two of us. Eventually I regained my faculties and freed Kara, but I was so angry at Darkseid that Hamilton thought I was going to kill him if he didn't save Kara's life. He wouldn't talk to me after Kara recovered, but I never thought he'd joined forces against us until I found him at Cadmus' headquarters."

"You never told me that," Batman said. "When did you see him?"

"When they kidnapped The Question, Huntress and I broke into the Cadmus headquarters."

"That part I remember, just not the little detail about Hamilton."

"I didn't think it was important," Superman shrugged. "When I found him in their lab, the mystery about Tea's existence was solved, as only Hamilton would have been able to procure a piece of Kara's DNA when she was injured. He babbled about how the League represented the greatest threat humanity had ever faced, but I didn't have time to stay and educate him as Huntress and I were knee deep in a fight. I haven't seen him since."

"Do you have any suggestions about where to start looking?" Diana asked. "Judging by what he said to Tea, he's obviously insane."

Superman contemplated the question for a moment. He tried to focus on the known whereabouts of Hamilton before the League was formed, as Hamilton had quietly disappeared into the depths of the Cadmus conspiracy soon thereafter.

"Why not one of Star Labs old facilities?" Superman suggested. "If the suit he's wearing is more powerful than the one Luthor used to wear, that means he'll need the power – and equipment – to maintain it."

"Why not one of Luthor's old hideouts?" Diana inquired. "Didn't he shield them in lead so you couldn't track him? Sounds like a perfect hiding spot for Ruin."

"A lot of those buildings have been abandoned or sold since Luthor disappeared with Darkseid," Batman noted. "Mercy Graves has been selling them to raise cash to fight a hostile takeover."

"Considering that Wayne Tech initiated that hostile takeover, you might be privy to more of that information than the rest of us," Superman said.

"I already uploaded a list of the most likely facilities onto our network. Why don't you take Nightwing and start working through the list?"

"What are you and Diana going to do?"

"The same thing, as soon as we've had a chance to de-brief the strike team. They're en-route. ETA: Five minutes."

"Who's up?"

"Lantern, The Question and Arrow."

"Have you considered using one of our Magicians? Couldn't one of them cast a spell to track Tea and Ruin?"

"Zatanna is the only Magician available on call. We dispatched a Javelin to pick her up from her show at the Sands. She's en-route from Vegas as we speak."

"What about Fate? Etrigan?"

"Fate and Etrigan are busy dealing with a disruption of the celestial plane."

"They never available when you need them," Superman said, then nodded at Nightwing. "Why don't we take the Batwing? You can fill in any missing details en-route."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"Somewhat risky putting them together, don't you think?" Diana asked as the Batwing rocketed away, heading south toward New Jersey.

"Clark's a big boy," Batman replied with a shrug. "I don't think he's going to hold a grudge against Dick just because he and Tea had an affair."

"But you made a point to show him a picture of Ruin instead of the whole video."

"A certain amount of discretion is warranted." Batman shrugged, then nodded up at the rapidly approaching Javelin-8 in-bound from the Watchtower. They moved away from the impending jet-blast as the Javelin switched into hover mode above them, then waited for Lantern, the Question and Green Arrow to emerge from the exit ramp after the spaceplane touched down.

Lantern was carrying a small bag in his right hand. He stopped and did a double take when he spied Diana's uniform. He glanced sideways at Batman, gave him a knowing wink, then presented Diana with the bag.

"Nice outfit," Lantern murmured.

"Thanks." Diana nodded appreciatively as she opened the bag. Even though there was only the faint light of a waxing moon above, her armor was luminous in the faint glow. She performed a quick inventory to ensure that everything she had requested was there then closed the bag.

"Are you going to wonder-spin your uniform on?" Lantern asked, his curiosity evident on his face.

"It doesn't work like that," Diana replied with a grin. "There will be plenty of time to change later. We need to move quickly if we're going to catch up to Ruin and Power Girl."

"Who's Ruin?" The Question asked.

"One of Cadmus' scientists has gone rogue," Batman explained. "He created Tea and was responsible for her training. By the sounds of it, somewhere along the way, he developed an unhealthy obsession for her."

"Any idea of what he's going to do to her?" Arrow asked.

"Probably brainwash her again to become an agent against the League," Batman speculated. "Bottom line, we need to find her before anyone gets hurt."

"Where do we start looking?" Lantern asked.

"Since Luthor's buildings are shielded with lead, it made more sense to send Superman and Nightwing to work through a list of Star Labs facilities." Batman replied. "You guys work through Luthor's known hideouts that were capable of servicing and powering his suit."

Batman saw Diana's head swivel toward him, her eyes looking at him in obvious surprise at not being paired on this mission. "What about you and Q?" Diana called out.

"We're going to pay a call on an old friend," Batman replied. "Can we borrow your plane?"

"The Invisible Jet?"

"Do you have another one?"

"There's a word I'm thinking of that might help sway me."

"Fine. Can we please borrow your jet?"

Arrow and Lantern traded shocked glances, stepping a few paces back from the squabbling couple. Arrow leaned toward Lantern and whispered, "I take it they finally did it?"

"How did you guess?" Lantern replied.

"Bats' saying please is all the confirmation I need."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Tea felt a stab of consciousness invade her mind, but a searing headache quickly replaced her slowly coalescing thoughts. She made no attempt to stir, hoping that she would instead gain some advantage by 'playing possum.' First, she flexed her muscles to determine if she'd been injured by Ruin's blast. She felt sore, but otherwise no worse for the wear. However, her ankles and writs were shackled to a hospital bed. She flexed her muscles to see if she could budge them, but Tea wasn't strong enough to break the bonds.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, hoping that some scent would provide her a clue as to her location. There was a familiar, musty smell in the air that she associated with the underground prison at Belle Reeve, but nothing else revealed itself. She attempted the same exercise with her hearing next, stretching out with her enhanced senses as much as possible.

A few sounds were mixing at different frequencies. The first was a telltale chirp of an EKG machine. Tea could hear her heart beat reflected in the soft metallic chirp. The rhythmic whirring of two fan blades also told her she was in a room with forced ventilation, reinforcing her initial impression that she was being held underground. She strained to determine the source of a third sound, but she could not discern the source of the low-frequency buzz coming from the ceiling.

Tea regulated her breathing as much as possible to maintain the appearance that she was still unconscious, but Ruin must have anticipated her as his voice rang from a few feet away.

"How do you feel?"

Tea was silent, hoping she to convince her captor that she was still unconscious.

"Stop pretending that you're asleep, Tea. The EKG and brainwave machine told me you were coming around before you knew it."

Tea muttered a quiet curse under her breath and opened her eyes. Ruin stood a few meters away. His helmet was off, but otherwise Hamilton had left the rest of his suit intact. The EKG machine was next to him, the faint blips of her heartbeat clearly visible. Tea frowned when she realized that the room was bathed in red light – the lights were responsible for the unfamiliar, low frequency buzz high above her. Hamilton was obviously well prepared as he'd rendered her powerless under their red glare.

"Where are we?"

Ruin didn't answer. Instead, he reached over to a nearby side-table then poured a glass of water from a pitcher, adding a straw. He lifted it close enough for her to grab the straw with her lips, greedily sucking the entire contents of the glass.

"Better?"

She nodded. "So where are we?"

"Safe from the prying eyes of your new teammates."

"Underground? Shielded by lead?"

"Correct on both accounts," Ruin replied. "How do you feel?"

"Weak. What did you hit me with?"

"Ionized kryptonite."

"So weapons design is yet another feather in your cap?"

"I can't take credit for this particular invention. It was actually designed by a brilliant colleague of mine named Ivo. He's dead now, but there was no reason to reinvent a perfectly good kryptonite matrix emitter. Luthor had one in the suit he used to wear. I made some improvements that should prove useful."

"I can tell you first-hand that your suit is very effective," Tea said, an obvious trace of sarcasm intended for his benefit. She looked down for the first time and was shocked to find that she was wearing one of Dick's Nightwing outfits. "Why did you kidnap me?"

"As I said, I had to rescue you as soon as possible in order to begin your re-education as soon as possible. I had to move up the timetable of your rescue since the opportunity presented itself, but I wasn't fully prepared for your arrival."

"I've never heard of a rescue where the victim ended up being strapped to a bed by her rescuer. Are you planning on keeping me strapped to the table until you give me a lobotomy?"

"Nothing so radical is required. You won't be immobilized for more than a day or two," Ruin assured her. "I just have to procure a few more pieces of equipment, then we can begin."

"So you intend to brainwash me to becoming Galatea again?" Tea asked. "I'm not that person anymore! I haven't been since the day you sent me off on that suicide mission."

"You don't know how much it pained me to do that, Tea. But there was no choice. Cadmus was calling the shots. As soon as Cadmus folded like a cheap suit, I dedicated my life to becoming Ruin so I could rescue you from that dungeon at Belle Reeve."

"Talk about delusions of grandeur," Tea snorted. "If I couldn't take on the League when I was at full power, what makes you think you could do it with that ridiculous suit? Your kryptonite blasts only work on two of us, remember? There are more than fifty members in the League. Diana and the others will tear you to pieces while you spend all of your time trying to kill Superman."

"Superman? I thought you would have been on a first name basis with Clark by now," Ruin mocked.

Tea tried to maintain a poker face, but his revelation of Clark's identity shocked her so that it was impossible to conceal her surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I've known Superman's 'secret' identity for years," Ruin replied. "It was the one thing that I never told the higher-ups at Cadmus."

"Why not?"

"It's a lesson that you'll learn someday. Always keep something in reserve in case you're in a tight spot."

"Is that why you haven't gone public with it?"

"Among other reasons."

Tea shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "I have to pee."

"Nice try. I already put a catheter in place. There's also an IV to keep you hydrated."

"You're a sick, twisted old man. Did you take a nice long look while you were there? Why didn't you just rape me while you were at it?"

"It's nothing that I haven't seen before. Besides, I would prefer my bride to be a little more…responsive. Now be a good girl and relax for awhile. I'm going to go retrieve some equipment from one of my old labs and I'll be back before you know it."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Superman sat quietly in the backseat, poring over the likely hiding places where Hamilton might be found. Reasoning that Hamilton would stay away from the most likely locations near Metropolis, they were a few minutes en route to a remote location in the barrens of southern New Jersey. For most of the flight, he'd occupied himself by perusing the list of locations Batman had provided for Star Labs facilities. The logic had been impeccable, as each location was an abandoned facility where Hamilton had worked during his fifteen year tenure with that institute.

"So how's Tim doing?" Superman asked, breaking the heavy lull of silence that had existed between himself and Nightwing since they'd taken off from the Metro Tower.

"How do you know Tim?" Nightwing replied.

"Worked with him a few years back when Brainiac kidnapped Bruce," Superman replied. "We played Batman and Robin for a day. He taught me the ins and outs of impersonating your boss."

"Ex-boss," Nightwing replied quickly. "We haven't worked as a team for more than five years."

"My mistake," Superman grinned. "But, if you don't work with him anymore, why did you let him convince you to join the League?"

"Because he's not in charge of the League, and I thought his rationale about an embargo on his own team joining the League was crap. The League recruited The Question, Green Arrow, Huntress, and a few other non-powered members. Why not us? It's not as if we weren't trained by the best."

"We asked him if he wanted to bring you guys in years ago, but ou know Bruce. He likes his little power trips."

"I also didn't like being left out of the fight when Darkseid and his Parademons were invading Earth." Dick shot back bitterly. "I would have emptied Bruce's bank account to get my hands on a League comm. link to call in some back-up. We were getting our asses kicked in Gotham while the rest of you were watching each other's backs."

Superman didn't say anything, but he could sympathize with Dick's plight, especially having lived through the frustration of Savage's future world where the silence of his long-dead teammates had been deafening. He cleared his throat, knowing that the next topic was likely to be a sensitive one.

"So I take it that by the circumstances of Tea's kidnapping at your place that you and Tea were intimate?"

There was no response from the pilot's seat.

"Still there, Dick?"

"I heard you. I'm trying to figure out how to answer that question without appearing to be some kind of gigantic ass."

"Start with the truth."

"Tea and I started flirting the moment we set eyes on each other," Dick admitted. "Since we were rookies I thought it made sense to hang out together. I didn't realize that it would get physical so quickly…"

"You're both consenting adults," Superman replied as a warning buzzer signaled they were nearing the facility. "And it's not like you two were the first members of the League to start dating. Between Lantern and Hawkgirl, Question and Huntress, Arrow and Canary, I can't keep them all straight."

"Not to mention Bruce and Diana," Nightwing muttered.

"WHAT?" Superman yelped in surprise. "Since when?"

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Amanda Waller had just settled onto the couch of her one-bedroom flat in Bethesda, Maryland to watch the evening news when a sudden chill in the air sent a shiver down her spine. She was wearing flannel pajamas, but the temperature had dropped so quickly, she forced herself off the couch to check the thermometer in the hallway. She peered at the LED readout, which confirmed the setting was as she'd intended, then spun around in shock when she felt the presence of another in her apartment.

"Hello, Amanda." Batman said.

"Rich boy!" Amanda replied, stepping back as she was shocked that he'd slipped past her upgraded security systems for the second time. "What are you doing here?"

"We've got some questions about one of your Cadmus scientists," Batman replied, nodding at The Question to answer her unasked query about who 'we' meant. The Question curtly nodded at her from the kitchen, then resumed his task of going through the contents of her briefcase.

"Get away from that!" she demanded. "That's classified information."

"Then why did you bring it home?" Question mocked. "Is it as big a secret as your two-a-day Twinkie consumption?"

"I thought you would be tired of looking through people's trash by now," Waller muttered.

"People's trash is just the tip of the iceberg. I go a lot deeper than that."

"We've got more important things to talk about than your latest coup d'etat in Africa," Batman interrupted. "What can you tell us about Professor Emil Hamilton?"

"What do you want to know?"

"When did you last see him?"

"Nine or ten months ago," Amanda replied, searching her memory. "After we folded Cadmus, Hamilton and the other scientists were disavowed."

"Where is he?"

"I have no idea," she replied. "We've tried to distance ourselves from that little disaster as much as possible."

"That 'little disaster' include the Galatea project?" The Question demanded.

"Is that what this is about? What happened? Did she go rogue after you recruited her?"

"Hamilton went rogue, Amanda. He kidnapped her and nearly killed my son in the process."

"I don't know anything about that."

"What can you tell us? What happened to the equipment Cadmus used to condition Doomsday?"

"Let me check," Amanda replied, scooting around the corner of the hallway to her computer. Doing her best to ensure her privacy, she entered in a series of increasingly long passwords into the keyboard. She glanced up and realized that The Question was watching her input her passwords via a reflection off the glass of an Ansel Adams picture above her desk. Amanda made a mental note to change her passwords as she realized there was a good chance he'd just memorized them.

She ran a search query on the Cadmus database, and was instantly rewarded with a manifest list of the equipment used in both the Galatea and Doomsday projects. She hit the print button, then handed over the four-page list. Batman perused it quickly, then handed the list to The Question.

"Any suggestions?" Batman asked.

"How about the storage depot at Ft. Drum?" she replied. "Most of the equipment from the Doomsday project ended up there. It's not heavily guarded, and if he hasn't already built the equipment himself, the manifest says most of the equipment he needs is right there waiting for him."

She turned to enlarge the map of the facility, then sent the image to the printer, but when she turned back to face them, they'd disappeared.

"Damn you, Rich Boy!"

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**


	8. Search

Chapter #8 – Search

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

"Can we trust her?" the Question asked Batman as they settled into the Invisible Jet.

Seated in the pilot's chair, Batman contemplated the query from his teammate, shrugged his shoulders in reply, then quickly ran through a quick pre-flight checklist. Once that was done, he powered up the engines, then set the craft on a course of due north towards upstate New York. They were passing through ten thousand feet when he finally spoke.

"Trust her? No. But given the bad press Waller and the government have gotten since the Ultimen, Waller now only lies when it's in her best interest," Batman replied. "She might be more than happy to have the League deal with another mess leftover from Cadmus's legacy before it garners another media storm."

Batman noted his partner's stony silence.

"Then again, she might just be playing us," Batman observed.

"I still don't trust her. None of our previous experience with Cadmus indicated that Ft. Drum was a primary operations or staging area," The Question said.

"What would you suggest? Sit around waiting for Ruin to show up with ten Galatea clones ready to do his bidding?"

"Point taken."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

"Another dead end!" Superman yelled across the warehouse.

Nightwing could hear the frustration in his partner's voice. He acknowledged with a grunt, but didn't bother to discuss the conclusion that seemed as obvious as the nose on his face: it WAS a dead end. Knowing that bitching wouldn't help, he redoubled his efforts to find a clue that might lead to Hamilton. He shined his flashlight at a file drawer crammed into the back corner of the office. He pried the file drawer open, hoping its contents would reveal something useful. A quick look at the contents convinced him otherwise, unless he wanted to peruse semi-annual performance reviews for the janitorial staff who'd worked at the facility a year before.

The warehouse was the third Star Labs facility they'd searched. The first two had initially shown promise as some equipment showed evidence of recent use, though none of the machinery had applications that would likely benefit Ruin. Judging from the state of the nearly empty warehouse in which they were standing, the trail was getting colder as they worked their way down the list.

Nightwing felt a rustle of wind at his cheek as Superman flew by him heading towards the plane parked outside. He dropped the files back into the drawer, then hustled outside to catch up.

"This is pointless," Superman stated as he perused the description of their next warehouse. "Hamilton would never operate in a place like this."

"Why not?"

"He was a white lab coat kind of guy."

"Meaning what?"

"He was wired a bit tight. I admit that I had no clue that he would become a paranoid schizophrenic, but I do know him well enough to know that a dirty, abandoned warehouse isn't going to cut it for a hideout. He's too clinical, too much of a neat freak."

"What I don't get is what happened to Star Labs," Nightwing replied as he settled into the pilot's seat in the front of the cockpit. "How did all of these facilities go dark overnight?"

"Turned out that Hamilton wasn't the only scientist doing stuff off the books with Cadmus," Superman replied. "Most of Star Labs funding came from federal grants, so when the GAO auditors started asking questions or playing games with their funding, the best and brightest jumped ship to work in the private sector. The Board of Directors had no choice other than to put the company into bankruptcy."

"What a waste," Dick muttered as he spooled up the engines. "Where to next?"

"I think the warehouse angle is flawed," Superman mused as he scanned through the list. "When I first learned Hamilton was affiliated with Cadmus, he was working in one of their underground bunkers. It was hidden deep under a supposedly innocent research lab operated by a defense contractor. We need to cross reference this list with places where the bedrock is pretty deep."

"Deep bedrock?"

"Cadmus retreated to sites with deep bedrock when they found out we had the fusion canon. They thought they were safe from its blast depth. New Mexico proved otherwise."

Dick nodded, inwardly wondering how they could process such a complex search. Superman answered the unspoken question for him by activating his comm. link to the Watchtower. "Mr. Terrific, we need your help."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

"That looks better," Green Arrow murmured as he spied Diana emerging from the bathroom at the rear of the Javelin-8. She'd changed into her familiar red, yellow and blue armor, complete with the tiara and the lasso on her hip.

"Didn't you like the Batgirl costume?" Diana teased as she sat down in the chair next to Arrow. John Stewart was at the helm, rocketing the plane to a Lexcorp facility located in the Appalachian chain in West Virginia.

"I know Batgirl. I've worked with Batgirl. Trust me when I say this Diana, but you're not Batgirl."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Bad thing? No. It's just that, well, you fill out the suit differently than Barb."

"I'll take that as a compliment Ollie, but wouldn't Dinah be a little upset if she thought you were looking at other women in the League?"

"Dinah's a big girl. She doesn't mind the truth."

Diana winked at him to show him that she was just teasing, then looked at the cockpit indicators. "What's our ETA to West Virginia?"

"Two minutes," John Stewart replied from the helm. "Luthor's primary robotics R&D lab was buried in the Blue Ridge chain."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Standing outside in the cool night air, Ruin worked quickly to bypass a security terminal before the safeguards protecting the main by-pass kicked in. It was a relatively easy task considering he'd swiped one of Luthor's nano-picks from Cadmus before the organization folded. He waited an extra ten seconds before pulling the open the door in case the nanites accidentally shorted out the circuitry. Satisfied the nanites had by-passed the alarm, he slipped inside the innocuous looking guard house. It was supposed to look like a ranch house, but the fence he'd flown over was an obvious giveaway that the house actually resided over a former Titan II ICBM missile silo. Cadmus had appropriated a number of the sites from the U.S. Air Force as it had proven relatively cheap and easy to convert and expand the twelve-story deep silos into research facilities.

Having spent some months working in the facility during his affiliation with Cadmus, Ruin easily navigated the maze of elevators, hallways and laboratories. He walked with deliberate purpose to secure the equipment he needed to complete Galatea's rehabilitation. As he walked, he debated the best means to transport the equipment back with him. Along the way he spied a carry cart he realized was perfect for the task. While the cart showed some wear and tear, its bed-size platform would prove useful in carting the rest of the equipment back to his hideout. He activated the power system and was immediately rewarded with the familiar hum of the machine's anti-gravity repulsor lift engine. The machine could carry over two thousand pounds of equipment, perfect for the task at hand.

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

"This is a waste of energy," The Question announced. "Waller played us."

The pronouncement seemed a bit early to Batman, considering they only touched down at Ft. Drum five minutes earlier. When they'd landed at the coordinates assigned by Waller, two guards were waiting for them in front of a huge aircraft hangar. They'd escorted the Leaguers inside without a word, but it wasn't lost on either of them that neither of the guards had since departed.

They were under surveillance.

"We've been on relatively good terms since she helped us take down Luthor," Batman pointed out as he surveyed the contents of some crates stacked in the corner of the warehouse. He was careful to maintain their position out of earshot of the guards, while a simple flick of a switch on his belt defeated any parabolic or laser sound amplifiers the guards might be using. "What's her motivation?"

"Simple pride," The Question replied without raising a finger to help in the search. "Cadmus left a legacy of contamination in its wake. Think about it. First Luthor, then the Ultimen. Doomsday and Galatea. Now they've got a renegade scientist who's using Cadmus technology to kidnap League members. Waller doesn't want another public relations disaster on her hands, so if she knows anything about Hamilton, she'll try to deal with it herself."

"Did it ever occur to you that I might have anticipated that?" Batman whispered. "Given your love of conspiracies, I thought you saw me slip that tracer on her."

"Then why are we here?"

"You tell me."

"If she is playing us, Waller thinks she's thrown you off the trail by sending you here. She'll be sure to monitor our arrival to make sure that we show up and waste time sifting through a dead-end warehouse."

"Correct. Assuming this is a dead-end, Waller would have never lead me to Ruin directly if she thought she could handle the problem herself. We'll continue to go through the motions here, but in the meantime I'm tracking her to see if she makes any movements that are out of the ordinary."

"Movements to a hidden Cadmus facility perhaps?"

"Perhaps. Of course, we might flush her to Hamilton if you help keep up the charade."

"I'll start looking through the trash."

"Right answer."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Amanda Waller had just sat down in front of her computer to check her latest e-mails when she received the final phone call she'd been expecting.

"Waller," she answered gruffly.

"We picked up a second-long security breach out at our facility at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, but then the system re-set itself and gave us an all-clear. You said to call if anything happened. I personally think it's probably a rat or prairie dog chewing on the lines, but you said you wanted a call if anything got tripped."

Amanda accessed the database that showed the brief alarm, looking for the tell-tale signs of a breach. She couldn't detect anything obvious from the telemetry, but decided to be prudent anyway.

"Dispatch a strike team to the site. I want them locked and loaded. No safeties."

"That's a lot of firepower just for a rat."

"I don't think it's a rat. I think there's been a breach."

"It will take at least an hour to get a strike team assembled and at the silo. Are you sure you want to spring for the overtime?"

"I can't take the chance not to. Also, I want to direct the operation on-site."

"But that's over a thousand miles from D.C.!"

"Then get me a really fast plane."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

"What have you got?" The Question noticed as Batman surreptitiously pulled his tracking monitor from his belt.

"Waller is outbound from Andrews Air Force Base, westbound at Mach Two."

"Sounds like she's in a pretty big hurry for someone who should be going to bed. Should we follow?"

"The Invisible Jet can pull Mach Eight, so I'm not worried about her getting too far ahead. Let's give her another ten minutes to build up a head start, then we'll follow."

"Should we tell the other teams to meet us there?"

"Not quite yet. We still don't have enough to justify pulling them off their searches. As you said, Waller may just be playing us. If she is, we can't afford to lose the search time."

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Ruin was busy double checking the manifest he'd made earlier that day. The desired equipment had proved harder to locate than he'd anticipated, so instead of aimlessly searching the storage bins, he'd hacked into the on-site inventory database. He'd spent the last hour loading the now-full carry cart with the items he needed. As he led the cart to the final storage bin to locate the last piece on his shopping list, a neural scanner on his cart toppled off to the side. He took off his helmet as the neck attachment restricted his peripheral vision, then bent down to push the scanner back onto the cart. The crouching movement saved him from harm as two plasma discharges impacted head high on the wall where he'd just been standing.

Ruin cursed under his breath as he rolled toward his helmet. He grabbed it then took cover behind the cart. Quickly snapping the helmet into place, his thermal sensors immediately informed him he was opposed by a squad of ten soldiers hunkered down at the end of the corridor. He powered up his systems, waited for the beep that told him he was powered up, then aimed the targeting system mounted inside the helmet at the nearest soldier. As soon as the system locked onto the target, he blasted the nearest soldier. A volley of fire returned in his direction, with three of the soldiers scoring a direct hit. Unfortunately for them, their blasts had no discernible effect against the newly generated electro-magnetic shield emanating from his armor.

Time was really the only effective enemy Ruin had at the moment, as the power packs that fueled his suit had an effective life of six hours, assuming average use. It had been four hours since he'd last changed the power packs, but Ruin wasn't about to dwell on that fact as he poured a volley of plasma bursts at his opposition.

A minute later, the last of the soldiers lay prone on the floor. They'd died quickly, but not in vain. One of the snipers had accidentally managed to blow a substantial hole in the neural scanner he was trying to steal. Ruin screamed with rage when he saw the hole, instantly comprehending that there was no effective means by which he could monitor Tea's brain activity during the reconditioning process. He unleashed a salvo of energy blasts that turned the opposite wall into a molten pile of slag, then headed to the elevator with the remaining equipment hovering behind him on the cart.

**TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Amanda Waller had watched in shock as the battle between her strike force and Ruin had unfolded in the old Cadmus facility. She was stationed ten kilometers from the silo, sitting in the rear of a converted M-2 Bradley that had been adapted specifically as a mobile command and control facility for special operations missions. She shook her head in desperation as the soldier's vital signs were all fading away on the lower panel of monitors displayed in front of her. The video feeds from small cameras mounted on the soldier's helmets were still transmitting to the monitors on the panel above her. The video feeds were still active, but only one of the men from the strike squad had fallen with his camera still pointing down the corridor. She watched Ruin step over the man's body with nary a pause, then he disappeared from sight, towing the carry cart behind him.

To her left, Amanda's assistant trembled with rage.

"Ma'am, request permission to initiate the auto-destruct of that facility."

"Permission denied, Lieutenant. The computer requires at least three minutes to give people adequate time to get to safety. By that time, Ruin will be long gone. We need to call in some back-up with more firepower."

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The communications panel on the Invisible Jet flashed an incoming call. The call had been re-routed from the Cave to the Watchtower to the Invisible Jet, but Waller had no idea as to the recipient's location.

"Hello Amanda."

"Where are you?"

"Flying circles over Leavenworth at forty thousand feet. Two minutes from your location."

"Thought I sent you to upstate New York."

"I was born at night. Not last night. What's the situation?"

"Why did I even try?" Waller sighed into the phone, then she flipped a switch that triggered the accompanying video link. "Do you copy the video?"

"Affirmative," Batman replied as he spied the grainy images of the firefight between Waller's squad and Ruin.

"Ruin just blasted his way out of an old Titan II missile silo Cadmus had used. I don't think it was his hideout since he was towing a sleigh full of equipment behind him."

"Let me guess. He was wearing a red suit and there were eight reindeer along with him?" The Question mocked.

Batman held his hand up, an unspoken order for the Question to be silent.

"I'm glad you think this is funny!" Waller said with a grimace. "I've got a squad of ten soldiers down and a maniac scientist on the loose. I fail to see the humor."

"Why didn't you trust us the first time around?" The Question snapped back, ignoring Batman's unspoken order in the process. "Those men are dead because of your stupid pride."

"Those men are dead because of a three-thousand watt plasma gun is being wielded by a sociopath," Waller replied. "For some reason we can't track him, but we did receive some telemetry from that hover cart he's towing with him. I'm patching in the frequency via text message on this channel. He was heading due west when we lost the signal. He's probably over the Colorado state line by now."

"Any Cadmus or Star Lab locations on that vector?"

"There's another empty Titan complex at Ft. Lowry in Denver," she replied. "Dr. Milo was using it as a lab to develop his mutant warthogs when we shut it down."

"Then that's where we'll start," Batman replied, then clicked off the channel as he reefed the Jet into a sweeping left turn, easing out of it when the compass told him he was headed due west. With a quick sweep of his fingers, he'd patched the Batwing and Diana's Javelin-8 on the same channel.

"How quickly can you two get to Denver?"

"Forty minutes in the Javelin," Diana answered as she punched in the coordinates for the navi-computer. "We're in New Hampshire. Got a lead?"

"We're five minutes ahead of you – over Pittsburgh as we speak," Dick replied from the cockpit of the Batwing. He turned the plane to the west, then clicked on the Batwing's internal comm. link. "But I'm guessing you can do it a bit quicker than that?"

"I should be able to get there in minutes if I push hard," Superman replied. "Do you want to set this down and I'll fly you there?"

"I'd rather not spend the flight picking bugs out of my teeth," Nightwing replied, simultaneously pulling back on the throttle until the two engines were idling. The aircraft's forward speed dropped to two hundred miles per hour, then Nightwing triggered the switch that opened the canopy. Superman flashed past him when the aperture was a few feet wide, then Nightwing closed the canopy and firewalled the engines in sequence to regain his lost speed.

"Superman's in route to your position," Nightwing reported on the comm. link back to Batman as he watched . "I'll be a few minutes behind him."

"Rendezvous at the coordinates I'm sending you. Waller thinks he's using an old ICBM silo for his base."

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"Anything on the telemetry from that hover cart?" Batman asked The Question.

"Nothing yet. I'm trying to boost the signal amplifiers, but I've never worked with this kind of equipment before. The technology in this jet is incredible. Where did you say Diana got this thing?"

"I didn't."

"Another secret from a member of the Inner Council? Why should I be surprised?"

"It's not my secret to tell."

"You're the only man in the world who knows what she wears under the armor. I think she'll grant you some leeway about the Jet."

Batman considered the statement for a moment, then shrugged. "What makes you think she wears anything under the armor? As for the jet, it's a story for another time. Besides, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Now THAT I can believe," The Question agreed. He was about to launch into a diatribe about those REALLY responsible for the sinking of the Titanic (the conspiracy ran deep) but he was interrupted by the sudden beep of the telemetry from the hover cart.

"Tally-Ho! Come ten points north-west to a bearing of two-eight-zero. Target is fast and low at Angels six thousand."

"Six thousand feet in Colorado means he's barely above the ground," Batman muttered. "Can we intercept before he gets to Denver?"

"Negative. Current plot has us there two minutes behind him at current speed," The Question reported.

"It will have to do," Batman said. "Hopefully we can long him off long enough for the cavalry to arrive."

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Approaching his hideout, Ruin eased back on the thrusters that sustained his lateral speed. His forward momentum stalled, so he gradually re-engaged the anti-gravity repulsors until he was in full hover only a foot off the ground. He released the tow cable he'd attached to the hover cart, cursing the sled as it had created far more aerodynamic drag during the flight than he'd accounted for. It had taken him an extra twenty minutes to make the flight from Kansas, and now his power pack was showing less than an hour of power reserves.

He trudged toward the spartan, concrete-block building that housed the elevator shaft leading down to the abandoned Cadmus facility. He'd appropriated the labs it held for his own uses a few months before. Similar to the facility in Kansas, he'd chosen a Titan I missile base that Cadmus had modified into an underground lab, then quickly abandoned after their fiasco with Luthor. With the government agencies locked in internecine warfare about the legacy of Cadmus, Hamilton had found it relatively easy to infiltrate the labs.

The facility's remote location in the undeveloped plains east of Denver provided perfect cover, especially since most of his activities developing the suit were twelve stories below ground. He punched his code sequence into the security system, waited a moment for the system's recognition, then turned around to position the cart into alignment with the service elevator door.

With piles of Cadmus technology lying around, the silo was the perfect location to manufacture and assemble the suit. Early in the design process he'd found it necessary to finance the purchase of certain system upgrades by selling the synthetic steroids to the Tweakers. He'd holed up in the silo for more than six months, only leaving to travel to Bludhaven once a month to deliver the steroids he'd designed by modifying some of Milo's lab data.

Ironically, it was sheer coincidence that he was with the Tweaker's the day that Batman and Nightwing had taken down their hideout. As the cash had rolled in, the Tweakers had proved highly adept at stealing customized circuitry boards he needed to control his suit's subsystems. The night that he tracked Galatea back to Nightwing's loft had been the first time the suit was fully operational, having integrated the last of the boards into the suit that very night.

His stomach grumbled while he waited for the elevator to make the climb to his location. Ruin considered the supply of microwaveable meals he'd stocked in the commissary, remembering with delight the memory of Galatea's fondness for turkey tetrazini. He found that particular memory to be more pleasant than others. When she'd emerged from the cryo-chamber, she was a blank slate, readily agreeable to any suggestion offered by Hamilton and his team. As her powers and understanding developed, she'd quickly become more assertive, readily questioning the rationale for Cadmus's assignments. It was the spunky, combative side of her personality that he'd fallen for, but as his attraction grew stronger, she'd sought him out instead as a father figure, asking for his guidance as her moral dilemmas increased.

Until Supergirl and the Justice League had shown up at Star Labs to request his assistance interpreting Kara's nightmares, Hamilton had never understood the true extent of the psychological link that Tea shared with Kara until the two started fighting in a holographic training lab. Knowing that Tea's existence had been revealed earlier than they'd planned, Cadmus had elected to sacrifice Tea. She'd survived the building's explosion with substantial injury, but recovered in short order. During her recovery, he'd implanted a neural inhibitor to sever the link with Kara, but Tea's resulting obsession with Kara's destruction pushed her newfound independence into outright rebellion against Cadmus and to a lesser extent, Hamilton himself. He'd always felt guilty about sending her on the final mission against the League where she'd stormed the Watchtower with the Ultimen, almost getting killed during the ensuing brawl with Kara. As the elevator door slid open, Hamilton resolved that he would remake Galatea into the willing, angelic young woman that had been born in the cryo-chamber over eighteen months before.

The sensors in his helmet suddenly lit up in warning. He turned in time for the tracking and targeting system to lock onto an incoming object twenty yards away. Ruin managed to bring his shoulder mounted plasma emitter to bear, firing on an incoming batarang that he recognized when it was only five yards away. The batarangs were loaded with C4 explosives however, and the ensuing concussion from the detonation threw him backwards into the elevator. Hamilton grunted in surprise that he'd been tracked so easily back to his lair, but his thoughts quickly turned to focus on his own defense as he spied the shadow of the Bat looming out of the haze of smoke down the corridor.

He volleyed a barrage of energy blasts in Batman's direction, hoping the distraction would give him time for his infra-red targeting system to lock on in the gloom while he powered up his defensive shield. The heads up display in his helmet reported a 'Fail' message twice however, then automatically cycled through a re-boot that would take another minute to come back on-line. He didn't feel like waiting that long, so he manually targeted another round toward the corner where Batman was hiding. He didn't wait for the return hail of exploding batarangs and launched himself on top of the equipment cart waiting in the elevator cab. The doors closed as The Question and Batman sprinted down the concrete corridor, too late to catch him.

Ruin activated the defensive systems in the silo with the keypad on his wrist. He quickly ran through a series of contingency plans to make his escape with Galatea, most of which hinged on how quickly Batman would be able to hack the security systems, or more likely, blow the doors down with Superman's help.

He concluded that it all depended on how quickly reinforcements would arrive, so he retreated down the hallway, double-timing toward Galatea's room.

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Courtesy of a recessed panel they'd located, The Question and Batman had just started bypassing the first layer of the security system when a blast of onrushing air told them that Superman had arrived.

"Where is Ruin?" Superman asked.

"X-Ray vision not working?" The Question asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"I can't see through the lead shielding."

"The Air Force was worried about radiation contamination when they dug these silos back in the fifties, so they shielded it with lead," Batman surmised.

"Is this the only access point?" Superman asked, nodding to the elevator shaft.

"The silos themselves should also provide access to the working areas," The Question noted. "The question is, which way is easier? The elevator or the silos?"

"I'll take the silos," Superman replied. He floated up to the ceiling, then smashed a hole in the roof to escape the confines of the guard house. He'd floated a hundred feet above his teammates to gain a vantage point to search for the tell-tale doors that protected the silo opening below.

"How many silos are in this complex?" He shouted down.

"According to the diagrams, there are at least three silos plus another two auxiliary access points for the power and guidance systems," The Question shouted back.

Superman nodded above him, focused his attention on the nearest silo porthole, then rocketed downward at maximum speed to penetrate the blast doors. He was surprised to find himself flung backwards, then realized that the doors had been designed to withstand a direct strike from an anticipated Soviet nuclear warhead. He peered closer and nodded with relief that the doors had at least buckled from his first assault. Superman climbed higher into the sky to gain more speed for the second attempt, smashing into the doors seconds later.

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Tea was startled awake from a boredom induced catnap by a sharp thump echoing the ceiling above her. The chamber where she was being held shook again seconds later. This time the force of the impact resonated all the way to the bed where she was being held. A third impact hit seconds later. Tea started smiling when she realized the likely source of the impacts.

"What are you smiling about?" Ruin asked as he emerged from the corridor into her cell.

"Tracked you, didn't they? Somebody got a little sloppy," Tea sang out.

"They got lucky," Ruin thundered back. "The suit is cloaked from all tracking devices."

"What's with the cart? Is it cloaked as well?" She asked, making a halfhearted attempt to peer around him at the cart he was still towing.

"The cart is…" His voice trailed off in disbelief as he realized the extent of his error. "Still broadcasting it's location, isn't it?"

"Nice move, Daddy," Tea mocked. "Wouldn't it just have been easier to shove a homing beacon up your ass? Oh, that's right. You couldn't since your head is already all the way up there."

"The sarcasm and the foul mouth will be the first things to go," Ruin replied icily. He leveled his blasters at the cart, turning both the equipment and the cart into a pile of slag in seconds. He disconnected Tea from the monitors then roughly pulled out the catheter. She yelped in protest, but was helpless against the straps. He disengaged the brakes on her bed as the intensity of the pounding above them increased, then started rolling her down the hallway in the opposite direction from where he'd come.

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"What can we do to help?" Lantern asked, striding up to look over Batman's shoulder. Diana and Green Arrow were trailing a half step behind, having just landed the Javelin. Nightwing stood off to the side, having parked the Batwing only a minute before.

"Why don't you start on another silo?" Batman replied, not taking his eyes off the security system access panel that he and The Question were furiously attempting to by-pass.

"Why hasn't Superman broken through?"

"The blast doors are reinforced with magnetic shields, so he's just been pounding them flatter with each strike. We may need another breach point since we don't know whether the silos are even open. Q thinks they may just be filled with concrete. Try your ring against the blast doors. Take the rest of the team with you and watch your backs. Superman's already taken out two anti-personnel canons that popped up from the surface. We can't afford to lose any more time."

"There's probably another ten waiting to shoot," The Question added.

"As soon as we have a breach, spread out and find Ruin," Batman ordered. "Take Arrow and Nightwing with you to watch your backs."

"What about you?" Diana asked as they started making their way outside.

"Q and I are almost done hacking the system. We'll see if we can disarm some of the defensive systems. I doubt it will be a cakewalk once we breach the silos."

"Understood," Lantern replied. He formed an emerald bubble around himself and Nightwing, then gained altitude. Diana picked up Green Arrow and trailed a few yards behind them. Lantern flew over Superman's location, trying to gain some insight as to what they were up against. Superman stood over his assigned silo, surgically cutting holes in the blast doors with his heat vision.

"How's it going?" Lantern shouted.

"Hamilton obviously thought ahead," Superman replied with a frustrated grunt. He didn't stop cutting through the steel as he talked. "I'm trying to locate the field generator under the blast door."

"Can't you just pound through the door?" Nightwing asked.

"I could hit the whole thing a lot harder, but I'm afraid I'll bring the roof down on top of them if I do."

The team set down a quarter mile away at another silo. Lantern gained altitude fifty feet above the blast door. He took a breath, composed himself, then willed the ring to form a drill with the same circumference as the silo.

"Here we go," he grunted, then spun the drill as fast as his thoughts could move it.

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The Question had just handed Batman a pair of mini-pliers from his coat when a shower of sparks erupted from the panel. Batman was thrown across the room, landing with a loud thump against the block wall. Alarmed by the severity of the shock to his partner, The Question was about to summon back-up from the team outside, but Batman raised his hand to signal he was all right.

"Let's NOT connect the black wires to the blue and yellow stripe again," he rasped. His suit was insulated against an electric shock, but the sheer voltage of the short-circuit had thrown him backwards.

"Agreed," the Question nodded, then he returned to stare at the panel. "But it may have been an accidental stroke of genius."

"What do you mean?"

"The board is flashing green."

"Flip the switch," Batman grunted as he propped himself up. His eyes widened in amazement as the elevator doors opened.

"Can I cook or can't I?" The Question said.

Batman triggered his comm. link. "To all points. We've breached the elevator shaft."

"I'm through," Superman replied. A moment later Green Lantern affirmed that he'd just cut through as well.

"Timing is everything," Batman muttered. "Let's leave Nightwing and Q topside in the Javelin to intercept him if he gets past us. The rest of you know what to do."

"There's no way you're keeping me out of this fight," Nightwing replied on the link. "I've got a stake in this, remember?"

"That's why I want you topside."

"I'll stay up here, kid," Green Arrow's voice cut in on the channel. "Go kick Ruin's ass."

"I'll watch over Nightwing to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," Diana's voice chimed in softly. "Don't worry about him."

Batman clenched his jaw angrily to argue the point, but The Question waved him off. "It won't be the first time she disagrees with you," he pointed out. "You may as well get used to it now."

"Agreed," Batman replied warily on the link. "Let's rendezvous inside."

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	9. Quarry

Chapter #9 – Quarry

Superman peered into the dark depths of the silo. A cursory visual inspection revealed nothing, so he switched over to his x-ray vision. The change in resolution immediately penetrated the darkened depths of the one-hundred foot deep concrete cylinder.

He assumed it would be a simple task to identify and mentally catalogue the locations of the defensive systems, but he was surprised at the sheer number of weapons blisters in the silo. He took his time to double-check the defensive array below him as he realized it was a difficult task to remember all of the locations once the battle commenced. He was counting on the light from secondary explosions to illuminate his targets as he couldn't utilize his heat vision and x-ray vision at the same time. He also knew from previous experience that switching back and forth would utilize precious time that he couldn't afford to lose.

Finally sure of himself, he powered up his heat vision and focused it on the weapon's blister nearest to the surface. The array glowed red hot in milliseconds then exploded with a dramatic bang. He targeted the next array and started to fry it when an anti-personnel pod suddenly popped out of the ground to his left. It hovered next to him, floating with the help of repulsor lifts mounted in the undercarriage.

He pivoted mid-air and trained his heat vision onto the new target, but it proved more nimble than he'd anticipated. It dodged his attack and unleashed a stream of heated plasma back at him. Now on the defensive, he climbed vertically, hoping to employ the advantages of his superior speed and maneuverability that he'd successfully used against other defensive pods on the surface. The pod, directed by an artificial intelligence system that had recorded his tactics against the surface mounted defensive systems, anticipated his climb and launched a plasma salvo into his path. He dodged the salvo at the last second, feinted to his right, juked back to his left, but the pod quickly adapted to his dizzying movements and changed tactics again by widening its arc of its discharge.

Realizing too late that he'd underestimated the pod, Superman absorbed three consecutive blasts into his chest and another on his jaw. The impact sent him reeling fifty meters above the silo entrance before he steadied himself in flight. Another volley of plasma from the pod forced him to dodge the incoming blasts with jukes and feints across the sky.

He shook his head to clear the cobwebs, then salvoed a blast of heat vision back at the pod. This time his blast was on target. One blast squarely hit the side of the pod, which pirouetted in mid-air due to the power of his attack. The droid immediately erected a defensive shield to protect itself, negating his next blast.

While the shield protected the pod, it also created a stalemate as the pod couldn't shoot at him while the shield was up. Superman increased the intensity of his beams, and the energy shield around the pod started to flicker with strain. The pod realized it was engaged in a losing battle, so it maneuvered horizontally and vertically in attempt to avoid his blasts. Superman missed with his next blasts on purpose, hoping to force the pod into a fatal mistake. Assuming (wrongly) that it was free from attack, the pod lowered its shield and targeted its weapon at him again.

His heat vision neatly sliced through the critical components in its processing unit a millisecond later. He recoiled as the pod self-destructed, showering him with flaming debris. Superman dusted off the smoking embers, mentally picturing the silo below him. Certain of his targets, he flew into the silo, shredding the fixed defensive systems with his heat vision and fists as he descended.

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Floating into the depths of a pitch-black nuclear missile silo encased in an emerald bubble would have been surreal for an ordinary man, but Nightwing was too busy targeting explosive birdarangs at the anti-personnel guns popping out from the walls of the silo to contemplate the absurdity of his circumstances. He was amazed at the adaptability of the power ring as the bubble would create small holes for him to throw his weapons, then automatically re-seal until he was ready with another.

To his left and surprisingly not protected by Lantern's shield, Diana was using her left bracelet to block the laser blasts back at the wall mounted weapons blisters while employing her free hand to throw her lasso around another. As soon as the lasso wrapped itself around the gun, she tore it off the wall.

Still protected by Lantern's bubble, Nightwing watched in awe as she settled into a position directly below them in the center of the silo, then she started to spin. He lost count after her third revolution when there was nothing but a blur of motion below him. Nightwing's ear cracked with the thunder of the sonic boom which emanated from the gun when it broke the sound barrier. He assumed that she'd reached her maximum spin rate as the blur of motion below him started to descend. The weapon's blisters attempted to target their guns on the blur of motion, but were hammered into submission by the blunt force of the hammer powered by the incredible centrifugal force that she was applying to it. The last of the weapons were quickly smashed into silence.

Diana arrested her spin and the gun she'd been using as her hammer of destruction tumbled to the floor a moment later. It was less than half of its original size, the sheer force of the impacts having neatly compacted the atoms into a slag heap.

Dick stole a quick glance at Diana as she secured the loose end of her lasso to her hip. He chuckled to himself as there wasn't a hair out of place on her head. "I wonder if she even sweats?" he thought. A moment later they reached the bottom of the silo. Dick felt the emerald energy bubble beneath his feet evaporate as soon as his feet touched the ground. Diana didn't bother trying the door handle, opting instead to punch through it without bothering to break stride.

Batman was waiting for them on the other side of the hallway. The door that Diana had just hammered with her first was embedded deep into the wall next to him. Nightwing watched as Diana's blanched with embarrassment when she realized she'd almost flattened her teammate. She mouthed a silent apology at Batman, but he didn't show any reaction to the near miss.

"Where's Superman?" the Lantern asked as they landed on the floor next to Batman.

"Right here," a slightly disheveled Superman responded from the end of the hallway. As he came closer, Nightwing could see the signs that he'd been through a bruising fight. His cape was tattered at the ends, and there were visible laser lacerations on his chest.

Superman noticed that his teammates were staring at his injuries, but he shrugged them off. "Red sun energy blasts," he noted with a grim set of his jaw. "Hamilton has seen everything that's ever slowed me down, so he equipped the guns on the bottom level to hit me with that wavelength."

"Which means he'll be using some kryptonite as well," Batman surmised. His hand swept the hall behind them. "I've swept these rooms. Let Lantern take point on the rest of the corridor ahead until we know what we're up against."

Superman was about to argue the point, but Lantern didn't wait for a committee resolution.

"Follow me," he ordered, then lit the darkened hallway with the emerald glow of his ring.

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"At least you'll have the privilege of knowing that the League brought their best to take you down," Tea observed from the cart. "Better than getting your ass kicked by a bunch of second raters most of the world's never heard of. I can't imagine the humiliation that some of your future cellmates must still be feeling after being taken down by Booster Gold. You'll always be able to tell them you matched wits with the Inner Council."

Ruin didn't rise to the bait. Instead, he watched a security monitor mounted on the wall. The screen showed an eastern portion of the primary access tunnel between the silos. Green Lantern, Batman, Diana, Superman and Nightwing came into view for a moment before the screen filled with the image of an incoming Batarang. The projectile must have found its mark as the screen went dark. Ruin didn't seem surprised. He reached out and toggled another switch linked to a backup monitor which appeared to be recessed farther down the tunnel.

Still strapped onto the bed, which was in turn now resting on the hover cart, Tea craned her neck to scan her surroundings. By the size of the blast doors alone, this room appeared to be the most defensible position in the entire complex. There were two sets of blast doors on either end of the room. They'd come through the first, which she knew led back down the long hallway to the League's current location. Tea didn't know where the second doorway led, but she knew Ruin well enough to guess it provided another means of escape.

Contemplating his opponents on the monitor, his calm demeanor unsettled her. She decided to distract him again rather than play the victim as she hadn't seen anything yet that would help her escape the restraints.

"No gloating over the p.a. system?" Tea taunted from the bed. "No words about their impending doom?"

"I'm surprised it took them as long as it did to breach the silos." Ruin replied coolly. "They're losing their edge."

"Is that right? I remember the files that Cadmus put together on every member of the League. You know them better than they know themselves. Face it, Daddy. You know what they're capable of. This half-baked plan of yours is going to blow up in your face."

"What is my plan?" Ruin's voice replied with an eerie chuckle.

"Get away from this fight, find another hideout long enough to brainwash me again, right?"

"You assume that your re-education is my ultimate end game?"

"What else could there be?"

"Do you not remember the real reason I joined Cadmus? Superman represents the greatest threat of all to humanity!"

"So you said. Of course that didn't stop you from creating both me and Doomsday. Let's see…how did that work out for you again?"

"When Cadmus was disbanded I had some time to evaluate those decisions. Doomsday was an error in judgment, but only because we relied on standard brainwashing techniques."

"What other choice did you have? Lobotomize him again? That didn't exactly work with the Ultimen clones. "

"Our failure to make a one hundred percent commitment to do what was necessary was the real reason why we failed with Doomsday. We made a different mistake with the Ultimen. Their powers were too weak to take on the League in a straight up fight. And just for your information, we didn't lobotomize the Ultimen. It was just as easy to guide them with neural emitters. It's ironic, really. The implant that I put in your brain to stop the dream connection with Kara put us on a whole new path of discovery. It was really just a simple matter of jamming her brainwaves from reaching yours. I realized that the next progression would be doing the same thing with the Justice League. It's already been tried once. Did Wonder Woman ever tell you about the time that Luthor used their comm. links to force the women in the League to fight in the meta-brawls? Where do you think he got the technology?"

Ruin's plan suddenly dawned on her. "You're going to take over the League using mind control? I thought this was about me!"

"Rest assured, Tea, our love is eternal. But you're correct that the stakes are far bigger than us or even the score I have to settle with Superman."

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"This sucks!" the Emerald Archer muttered loudly enough for his teammate to hear.

"Mmm hmmm," The Question replied non-commitally.

"So what are we supposed to do?" the Emerald Archer asked his teammate.

They'd been sitting in the cockpit of the Javelin for ten minutes. Thus far, neither had said a word, opting to cycle through the visual and auditory scanners to check for signs on their teammates progress down below.

Arrow had chalked it up to their residual mutual distrust for one another that had remained between them since Huntress had been kicked out of the League. Huntress and Canary had resolved their mutual disdain for each other by kicking the crap out of each other until neither could raise another hand in anger, but Arrow and Q had never had sought any closure of their own.

"Sit and wait, of course," The Question replied.

"How's Helena?"

"How's Dinah?"

"Making me go first, huh?" The Arrow asked rhetorically. "Fine. We may be here awhile, after all. Dinah is still mad at me for wrecking her bike."

"As I remember it, the train was the one that wrecked the bike. You were just a passenger."

"That's what I told her, but she won't hear any of it. We've spent our free time since then scavenging parts from junkyards. She's still pissed at Helena for that stunt you pulled."

"Why not just buy her a new one? It's not like you're short of the cash." The Question observed.

"I'd be happy to, but she's a perfectionist, you know? Everything has to be original."

The Question nodded sympathetically, seeming to realize the burden was now on him to talk. He appeared to be at a loss for words, then blurted out a revelation that probably should have been left unsaid.

"Helena makes me paint her toenails."

"You complaining about that? A woman's feet are the gateway to her -."

"- When I'm done there, then she makes me paint my own toenails," The Question interrupted. "She thinks it's sexy."

"There are worse things than a foot fetish," Arrow shrugged. "Turns out Dinah has a thing about men in stockings. Not the kind I wear, but the kind SHE wears."

"I wasn't finished. Helena likes my toenails pink."

The Arrow looked at his teammate with alarm. "You've got problems, my friend. BIG problems."

"Hello? Pot? This is the Kettle. You're black."

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"This is too easy," Nightwing whispered to Batman as they strode down the corridor. Lantern was at the lead position, advancing quickly on foot as he used his ring to search for the troublesome antipersonnel canons that had arrested their progress in the silos. Diana covered his left flank. Batman and Nightwing were stationed on the right while Superman brought up the rear.

"These corridors don't show evidence of the system upgrades we saw in the silos or the elevator," Batman replied. "Cadmus probably thought there wasn't much chance of a breach this far into the complex."

"Hamilton's had more than a year to work on this place," Superman interrupted. "If he had enough time to prepare the red sun blasts, then I'm guessing there's a better than even chance that we…wait, what's that noise?"

"I don't hear anything," John Stewart replied with a frown. He was still scanning the corridor ahead, but he cocked his ear to listen. "But then again, I don't have superhearing."

Batman paused to listen on his own. "I don't hear a thing. Not even the ventilation system is working. Probably powered down all non-essential systems to fuel the defense net."

"Let's keep moving," Diana implored. "At this pace, by the time we find his hideout, Ruin will be long gone."

Lantern didn't bother to wait for their acknowledgment. He stepped forward into the corridor, emerging into an intersection. He could either lead them left, right or straight ahead.

"Ideas?" he called out over his shoulder.

"Let's spread out," Batman replied. "Diana, you're with me. Dick, stay with Superman. Lantern's on his own. His ring will protect him."

"Thanks for the note of concern," Lantern replied. "Let's keep our comm. links open in case I am taken out."

"Done," Batman replied, then pointed at the monitor tracking their progress. "Castle Omega."

The lights in the corridor momentarily went out, then the auxiliary systems turned on.

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"It would be more interesting if they weren't so predictable," Ruin gloated as he watched them converse on the monitor. Over the last few months he'd computed a number of scenarios for how the League would attack his lair, refining the artificial intelligence directing his defenses based on the most likely outcomes. Still, he was amazed they were so arrogant to they would actually verbalize their intentions loud enough for the system to pick up. "The arrogance!" he thought. "After all, in their minds, I couldn't pose a real threat, could I?"

He dismissed the thought, then cocked his head as the lights flickered for a moment. His monitor went dark again, so he decided it was time to power up the defensive systems in each tunnel. It had taken him the full year to upgrade the original systems Cadmus had installed in the laboratories. Originally designed to knock out any renegade Ultimen clones, he'd used the extra cash generated by his steroid joint venture with the Tweakers to purchase and upgrade leftover LexCorp technology.

One of the favorite pieces of equipment was a frequency jammer. Taking out their ability to communicate was the first of many tactics he planned to employ.

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"If Batman hadn't tracked Hamilton down into this hole I'm not sure I wouldn't think this is a wild goose chase," Dick muttered. He estimated that they had walked more than a hundred meters down their designated tunnel without seeing a trace of activity. Even worse, the light in their tunnel was getting dimmer as they walked, most of the bulbs overhead lights having burned out years before. The corridor ahead of them was pitch- black.

Superman was about to reply when a heavy blast door suddenly dropped behind them from the recesses in the roof. He tried to arrest its descent, but a green luminescence on the door overcame him as soon as his hands touched the metal. He strained against the door for a moment, then gave up. He started shaking and almost collapsed from the exposure to kryptonite, but Dick's hand on his shoulder steadied him enough for them to slink away from the door.

His legs appeared to give way entirely as they walked away from the door, but when he finally sat down on the floor of the corridor, Superman realized they'd only moved ten meters away. He wanted to move further but the tunnel appeared to be a dead-end.

They were trapped.

"Kryptonite?" Dick asked, nodding toward the steel barrier.

Superman nodded. "It doesn't take much. Ruin probably atomized some molecules onto the surface."

"Let's call the others. See if Diana or Lantern can break us out," Dick replied, then triggered his comm. link. Static blared out of the earpiece in reply.

"Let me try," Superman said as he triggered his own. The same blare of static told him what he needed to know. "We're being jammed. Hamilton must have isolated our frequency."

"Any way to cut through it?"

"It's the first time it's ever happened. When Luthor gave Roulette the technology to co-opt the comm. links as mind control devices, we changed the system so that it would automatically re-calibrate the carrier wave every minute. The computers should automatically start cycling our frequencies to optimize our signals and prevent the jamming."

"That is, unless Hamilton can overpower all of the frequencies."

"He's probably thought of everything," Superman admitted. "Besides Luthor, I doubt that we've ever run up against an opponent who knows how to exploit my weaknesses – the League's weaknesses for that matter – better than Hamilton."

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Using the ambient light from his ring to illuminate the dark passage, Lantern maintained a steady search for hidden threats. He commanded the ring to look for likely places where Ruin may have hidden more anti-personnel canons, but so far the length of the corridor had proved to be devoid of all threats.

His ring never detected the motion sensor pad when he stepped on it as it was disguised with a reflective alloy the government had borrowed from the piles of Apokiliptan technology that Darkseid had left strewn about during his countless invasion attempts. His ring didn't recognize the threat until he was already covered with a sticky, yellow-tinged slime that burst out of a drainage cover at his feet.

His ring activated a protective bubble around him automatically once it recognized the danger, but it was too late as the slime was a delivery agent for the microscopic nanites Ruin had bio-chemically doctored to seep into the pores of his skin. Once they'd pierced the inner layers of his epidermis, the nanities delivered a nerve agent into his blood stream which immediately paralyzed his extremities. Lantern collapsed to the floor, lying on his right side. Still cognizant of his situation but unable to move, Lantern willed the ring to develop an anti-dote to the nanite poision. The ring immediately set about to work on the problem as it constructed a lab out of green plasma, but Lantern lapsed into a coma that it would take time to isolate and produce a set of anti-nanites.

Time he didn't have.

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"So what are you thinking?" Diana asked as she and Batman made their way down their designated corridor.

"Thinking?"

"Yes, Bruce. Thinking."

"I'm thinking Dr. Hamilton has proven more resourceful than we realized." Batman replied. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about our interrupted bath."

"Do we really have to have that conversation here?" Batman replied. He shined his pen-light on a stack of boxes that been left strewn ahead of them in the middle of the corridor. It seemed odd that Hamilton would have made such a mess, but if he was in a hasty retreat, it made sense that Ruin might have knocked them over.

"What conversation would you prefer to have?" Diana asked as she bent down to clear a passage through the maze of boxes.

"One about Tea."

"I was going to ask about what you think Ruin has planned for Tea," Diana retorted. "But given what she's up against, I'd rather think about something more pleasant like dinner at the Manor tomorrow night."

"Dinner at the Manor usually results in hours of surveillance from Gotham rooftops listening to Barb and Tim chatter about the latest fashion and music trends for the twenty-five and under crowd."

"I could think of worse ways to - " Diana started to reply but she trailed off as her hyper-reactive senses detected an incoming threat. Automatically she stepped in front of Batman to shield him from the danger. A weapons blister emerged from a compartment in the last box blocking their path. A surge of electricity slammed into her. She initially managed to deflect the high voltage stream with her bracelets, but the channel of energy adapted against her defenses, widening the electrical field until it overwhelmed her bracelets. As soon as the electrical surge touched her bare skin, it coursed through her body, rendering her unconscious.

Batman grabbed her with one hand to prevent her from falling forward onto the stream of the electricity while simultaneously unleashing a batarang with his free hand at the emitter. The batarang sliced through the base attachment, destroying the emitter before it had a chance to shift its aim to him.

He looked down at Diana, now limp in his arms. He checked for a pulse on her neck, felt a faint beat, and then breathed a sigh of relief that changed into a pique of frustration. Diana had instinctively tried to protect him without knowing his suit was insulated against electrical attack. Given his penchant for secrecy, it fell into the category of 'Need to Know'. Until now, he didn't feel that Diana or anybody else in the League had a Need to Know how his suit worked.

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Ruin intently watched the images of the downed Leaguers on a split screen. Nightwing was kneeling on the floor of the tunnel next to his prone companion, apparently attempting to shield Superman from the effects of the kryptonite walls. On another screen, Batman had laid Wonder Woman on top of a makeshift bed of packing crates. The visibility and screen image were poor as the electrical attack on the Amazon apparently had shorted out some of the lighting in the tunnel, but Ruin could make out the faint outline of the cape and cowl as he ministered to his fallen teammate.

He shifted his gaze to the Lantern. Still lying on the floor of the tunnel, the Lantern had ensconced himself in a cocoon of green plasma in an effort to protect himself from the nanites attack. Hamilton knew it was a useless attempt as the nanites had already penetrated his nervous system.

"Three down, two to go," Ruin whispered

"Yeah, but those two aren't exactly pushovers," Tea retorted weakly from the bed. Continuous exposure to the red sunlamps was slowly sapping her strength.

"The most overrated crime fighting duo in the history of the universe," Ruin replied with a snort. "For the life of me I've never been able to understand how either of them has lasted as long as they have. Then again, I had a chance to kill the little whelp after he'd defiled you, but apparently he survived, so who am I to talk?"

"Defiled?" Tea whispered bitterly. "Dick was the best thing that's ever happened to me!"

"Let's put a heavy emphasis on the 'was' part of that statement. Unlike the other three, these two will be useless to me once I have them under my control."

"You can't mean…"

"That it's time for them to die?"

"Big words from a man who's going to be spending the rest of his life in solitary at Belle Reeve," a masculine voice mocked from behind Ruin.

Ruin spun on his heels, an awkward motion at best given the weight of the suit, and barely managed to avoid falling on his face.

Green Arrow and the Question were standing at the opposite side of the room, the Arrow having already drawn his bow. He motioned for Ruin to raise his hands as a sign of surrender, but Ruin made no effort to comply with the request. Satisfied that his teammate was covering their foe, the Question moved towards Tea to secure her release. Ruin stepped into his path, effectively blocking him.

"Gentlemen, this is an unexpected surprise. How did you get in?" Ruin asked, trying to regain his composure.

"Locked the transporter onboard the Javelin onto the biggest electromagnetic source in the tunnels," Q replied. "We got bored talking about our girlfriends, so we decided to come looking for you."

"Girl talk would have been the smarter choice," Ruin replied, flipping his left wrist in a quick blur as he finished his statement. A beam shot out from an actuator on his forearm, hitting the Question on his left shoulder. Q spun to the ground, clutching his shoulder while trying to find some cover. Ruin pivoted to target his actuator on the Emerald Archer, but the Arrow had anticipated the attack, launching the bolt he'd drawn straight at Ruin's wrist. The Arrow rolled to his right as soon as the quill feathers passed the nock of the bow, providing Ruin with a difficult target. Arrow's bolt penetrated the armor at Ruin's left forearm, sending a shower of sparks as the bolt passed through two servos which powered the heavy armor's movement.

Ruin's left arm fell limp at his side as a result of the damage, but his right arm still functioned without trouble. He unleashed a salvo of beams from his actuator. Arrow cursed his mistake for not anticipating that Ruin would have an auxiliary weapon. Arrow drew another bolt but Ruin's ensuing fusillade sliced neatly through his bow, rendering it inoperable. Arrow somersaulted to his right while simultaneously throwing a smoke bomb-tipped arrow at the ceiling. It exploded on impact. The room filled with a cloud of white smoke, obscuring their vantage point but providing a moment of respite from Ruin's onslaught of plasma bursts. Arrow crouched behind a pile of heavy equipment to evade the next blast, but the Question had already secured the safest spot.

"How you doing?" Arrow asked, nodding at the burn mark on Question's shoulder.

"I'll live," the Question replied. "Can you get to Tea?"

"Consider it done," the Arrow replied. He drew two more arrows from his quiver and handed them over to the Question. "Use these if it looks like things are going bad?"

"Worse than this?" the Question asked, but the Arrow didn't respond as he was already running.

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Author Note: Sorry about the two –year delay. Writer's block is not fun.


	10. Resolution?

Chapter 10 – Resolution?

Nightwing produced a small penlight from his waistband as he stooped down on one knee to check on his teammate lying on the ground. He was about to discuss the possible escape options available to them when he felt the distinct vibration of three explosions rock the adjacent tunnel. Dust and dirt rained down on them as the ceiling shook from the explosions, but none of the pieces were large enough to cause any damage.

"Sounds like we found Ruin…are you done screwing around?" he asked, reaching down to pull his larger colleague to his feet.

"You call a good decoy strategy 'screwing around'?" Batman replied with a grunt.

"Castle Omega?" Dick chortled. "'Castle' for a position switch like in chess, I assumed Omega meant to be used only as a last resort. How long have you and Superman been waiting to use that one?"

"He borrowed my old uniform when Brainiac's nanites took me down a few years ago. Seemed only right to return the favor."

"Pretty quick change when the lights went out," Dick observed with a smirk. "Must be a little unsettling having a guy take off your uniform and re-dress you at hyper speed."

"You're on thin ice, Nightwing," Batman noted dryly. "Did you find the pressure switch to open this door?"

"Thought I found it after you started going for the Academy Award by swooning to the presumed effects of the kryptonite, but I was wrong. By the way, how did you know the kryptonite was embedded in the door?"

"I didn't. I just assumed Ruin would have some type of kryptonite trap in every tunnel, so if he sprung it on me then it would give Superman a chance to find Tea before it was too late. I assume those explosions we felt mean that Superman has located Ruin. Let's find that by-pass so we can find out what's going on."

Diana opened her eyes, wincing in pain as even the dim light remaining from the one working bulb overhead seemed to fry her already overloaded optic nerves. She took a deep breath to steady herself, slowly opening her right eye to see if she could stand the stimulus. Satisfied that she wasn't going to pass out, Diana eased her left eye open in an attempt to get her bearings. The chamber was definitely empty, so she rolled on her side then slowly eased herself off the two crates on which she was laying.

"Bruce?" she hissed quietly into the gloom of the tunnel, surprised that she couldn't find the Dark Knight anywhere nearby. Gingerly, she stepped back the way they had come originally, heading toward a soft green light glowing at the end of the tunnel. She sucked in a breath when she spied Batman in the distance kneeling over John Stewart, his gloves removed so he could check for a pulse from the Emerald Avenger. John appeared to be unconscious. Diana was puzzled to hear the green bed of plasma on which he was laying making soft mechanical sounds every few seconds.

As she stepped closer, the sound of her footsteps bounced off the tunnel walls. Batman heard her and nodded with confidence when he'd located the carotid artery. "Pulse is weak, but it looks like the ring protected him from the attack."

"What was it?" Diana asked, sidling up next to Batman to look down on their prone teammate.

"Nanites by the looks of it," He replied, but suddenly the voice wasn't Batman's.

Diana shook her head again to clear the cobwebs, certain that she was confused by the sudden change in voices. "How can you tell?"

"X-Ray vision can pinpoint down to .000001 Nanometers," he replied with a shrug.

"Bruce, since when have you developed x-ray vision?" Diana responded automatically, then she put her hands to her mouth and her eyes opened wide with embarrassment when she realized her mistake. "Clark, when did you switch uniforms with Bruce?"

"A few minutes ago," he replied sheepishly, pulling off the cowl. "Long enough to find out about you two, anyway."

"That wasn't meant for your ears," Diana stammered and felt her face burn with embarrassment. She took in a long breath and blew it out to compose herself. "How long is John going to be out?"

"A few more minutes by the looks of it," Superman replied. "The machine that the ring constructed is purging his bloodstream nanite by nanite. We should be…" He was interrupted by the sound of an explosion down the hall. Pieces of the ceiling rained down around them. Diana stepped forward to protect John Stewart from the falling debris, but the ring must have sensed the foreign objects raining down, supplying a new energy bubble which entirely protected the Lantern.

"There's not much more we can do to help him," Superman observed. "Batman and Nightwing must have found Ruin."

"Didn't they head down that tunnel?" Diana asked, pointing perpendicular to the direction from where the sounds of the battle were emanating.

Superman focused his vision down the tunnel. "I can't see them, but there is a lead-lined doorway closed up about one hundred meters from here."

"Did Ruin embed it with kryptonite?"

"Probably. I can't really tell as every door is lined with lead."

"Let's not take that chance," Diana observed as she lifted into the air, calling over her shoulder as she flew down the tunnel. "You go after Ruin, I'll find Batman and Nightwing."

Ruin swept the room with the modified infra-red optical scanner he'd designed for this type of battle. Despite the heavy smoke still lingering from Green Arrow's grenade, Ruin was able to penetrate the gloom and lock onto the nearest heat source. He tried to raise his favored left hand to blast his opponent, but the broken servos groaned in protest, locking up as soon as his arm was waist high.

Ruin cursed under his breath then fell back towards Tea's bed. He wasted valuable seconds keying a diagnostic/repair sequence with his right hand into built in keypad fixed to his left wrist. The software started a diagnostic/repair routine which notified him it was attempting to either repair the damage or bypass non-critical systems on the heads up display mounted inside his helmet. Satisfied that his left arm would begin working again in a few moments, he returned his attention to the Arrow's location, still masked in the smoke.

Not wanting to make the same mistake twice and allow his quarry to get within shooting distance, Ruin raised his right hand and selected the most powerful blast of plasma available on his heads up display. The system requested a delay to draw power from his suit's reserves as the on-going repair mode sucked up an enormous amount of power from his reserves, which stood at sixty percent according to his computer. He cursed at the momentary delay, glad to remember that at least he had taken a few moments to swap out some of his depleted power cells after his initial topside firefight with Batman, but the complete recharge had been interrupted when Superman had started pounding down the perimeter security systems. Ruin waited impatiently for the weapons charge-up, grunting with surprise when a salvo of arrows cut through the gloom in his direction. Ruin changed to a defensive mode and locked onto three arrows flying in his direction, fired and connected on all three. He laughed with delight when one of the deflected arrows managed to knock out the red lights overhead, plunging the room into darkness.

"Mistake!" he taunted as his infrared targeting system locked onto the Green Arrow. He triggered a plasma volley as soon as his heads up display confirmed the target lock. "You don't have infrared to see in the dark!"

"But I do!" a familiar voice boomed out from behind him. Ruin turned too late to avoid Batman's surprisingly airborne charge. Given the size and weight of his armor, Ruin had expected Batman, as a known non-meta, to bounce harmlessly off him, so he was shocked when Batman's lowered shoulder sent him bouncing backwards into the equipment bay a few feet away from Tea's wheeled bed.

"New powers I take it?" Ruin muttered, bewildered by the strength and abilities of his newest foe. "Borrow some of my steroids to power up for awhile? Or perhaps you're experimenting with gene splicing using the Ultimen's DNA to power your flight?"

"Not hardly, Professor," Superman's voice replied from the unfamiliar suit of the Dark Knight as he cornered Ruin near Tea's bed. "But I did borrow my teammate's uniform."

Ruin realized his opponent wasn't wearing the cowl, and then recognized the familiar facial features of the Kryptonian. Ruin nodded appreciatively, understanding the guile behind the change in uniforms. He quickly circled behind Tea, turning on the standard light switch mounted on the wall behind him to negate Superman's advantage in the dark over that of his own equipment.

"Sound tactics. But ultimately useless as I still hold a hostage," Ruin observed as he aimed his left emitter at Tea. He selected Kryptonite with his heads up display as he locked the target. The emitter glowed with a menacing green which Superman recognized and feared. "One more step and I will kill her. And don't try to utilize your speed. My targeting system will adapt to any phase-shift to adjust for your speed. She will be dead before you cross the room."

"You can't escape, Ruin," Superman replied, freezing his stride when he realized Tea's predicament. Green Arrow had emerged from behind the pile of trashed equipment, supporting The Question under one shoulder. "Question. Arrow. Are you okay?"

"I could do without the company of this psycho, but otherwise I'm just peachy," The Question replied. "I'll live. Where is Power Girl?"

"I'm over here," she replied. Still strapped to the bed, there was an obvious, helpless frustration evident in her voice.

"Are you hurt?" Green Arrow asked.

"I'm fine," she replied with a frustrated sigh, then looked back over at Superman. "On the other hand, if you want to burn a hole right through his head, don't wait for me to join the party."

"That may be a bit excessive," Superman replied. He turned his gaze back to Ruin. "What do you propose? How about a trade? Me for her?"

"How about both of you?" Ruin replied, toggling keypad on his wrist. "I should thank you for coming so close. My systems haven't been able to get a lock onto your comm. links until now."

Tea watched Superman's face go suddenly blank as the mind control software emanating from Ruin's comm. link took over control of Superman's synapses. His posture and body language changed completely from its previously aggressive stance to that of a passive robot awaiting a command.

Tea screamed as she realized what Ruin had done. "Arrow. Question. RUN!"

"I can't believe the World's Greatest Detective can't locate a simple door release," Dick muttered under his breath as he ran his fingers through the open seams and crevices on the right side of the blast door. "Are you sure Ruin would have built a backup?"

"Focus," Batman growled from the opposite side of the chamber. "All of the Cadmus facilities had them. It was the only way I could break into their headquarters."

Dick was about to tell Batman where he could stick his focus when the blast door started to groan. He leaned forward to place his ear against the door when he was suddenly pulled away from the door with a heavy hand on his shoulder.

"Get back," Batman yelled, pulling him down the tunnel.

The door continued to groan and a bulge appeared in the middle. The metal fatigue was evident as radiating cracks soon appeared in the blast door as tell-tale signs the door was ready to give way. The bulge blistered inward towards their position until a rendering crack tore an opening through the doorway. Two feminine hands appeared a moment later through the crack then pressed outwards until the hole was big enough for both of them to step through.

"Having trouble with the door?" Diana asked with a cheery smile as she stepped through the crack, nodding toward the open corridor behind her.

Batman and Nightwing exchanged quick glances. "Not a single word," Batman muttered.

"Exactly how strong is she?" Nightwing asked, his eyes bulging in amazement that the 16-inch thick door had been torn apart like tissue paper.

"Strong enough," Batman replied, then he turned to face Diana as she stepped back to allow them to walk through the opening. "What is the situation?"

"Nice to see you too, Bruce," Diana replied with a sigh. "Lantern's down due to a nanite attack, but recovering. Superman went to take care of Ruin."

"Is that what we heard?" Nightwing asked as they started sprinting down the tunnel.

"We heard a firefight before I came to get you," Diana replied as she sped away from them. "Maybe Tea turned the tables on Ruin."

Ruin snorted with derision as the Green Arrow and the Question flung themselves back over the pile of equipment in the corner, trying to find some cover. Ruin volleyed two unaimed blasts over their heads to make sure they stayed down as he strode over to peer into Superman's vacant eyes. Ruin debated his next move for a split-second, but his decision was made for him as his sensors picked up a high-speed, incoming object.

Wonder Woman appeared out of the darkness a moment later, landing behind Superman.

"You got him?" Diana asked Superman, but she was confused why he hadn't started stripping Ruin's armor away from him.

"More like he's got you," Ruin replied, keying in an attack command on his control pad.

Superman turned to face Diana, but his features were vacant of any familiar expression. Diana recognized the same symptoms that she herself had experienced during the meta-brawls, barely slipping the punch that suddenly whistled past her ear. She crushed her own earpiece with one hand to avoid becoming Ruin's second pawn while using the other to accelerate Superman's momentum towards her, simultaneously bringing her knee up into Superman's unprotected abdomen. He staggered long enough for Diana to try to put him in a headlock, desperately trying to gain a position where she could remove his earpiece. Superman fought the hold by arching his back and throwing her over his shoulder and down onto the ground with a suplex that sent a tremor through the room.

Diana lay prone on the floor, groaning in pain as Superman gathered his momentum downward to deliver a killing punch to her sternum, but she anticipated the attack and kicked her feet into his stomach while using his momentum to propel him over her head into the opposite wall with a crash.

In her periphery, Diana spied Batman and Nightwing slipping into the tunnel, making their way toward the Question and Green Arrow, who were still trying to ride the battle out from behind their limited cover. Superman was slow to get off the floor, so Diana took the opportunity to press an attack against Ruin. She'd nearly reached him when both emitters mounted on either side of him fired. Diana parried the attack with both of her bracelets, but she was surprised when the beams kept firing, widening the path of their energy blasts by the moment until they threatened to overwhelm the width of her bracelets. She stole a quick look at Superman. He appeared to be stirring, so she knew there was only a moment to score some damage against Ruin. She sidestepped to her right to shift the beams direction, pivoted under, blocking both beams with her left bracelet for a split-second before expertly reflecting the closest incoming beam with her right bracelet back into its emitter.

Ruin grunted in surprise as his heads up display flashed a fail message for his left emitter and some related systems. He took a step back to regain his footing, stepping away from Tea as he sought to redirect his attack against the Amazon. She flew toward Ruin moment later to complete the attack but Superman intercepted her in mid-air, landing a punch that pushed her across the room into the rock wall with a shattering crash.

Batman knelt down next to Green Arrow and surveyed the situation as Superman landed another punch on Wonder Woman. Nightwing produced a bandage from his belt to try to make a battlefield shoulder sling for the Question's injured left shoulder.

"Everyone remove their comm. links?" He rasped. They all nodded an assent.

"Diana's not going to be able to hold him off forever," Batman observed, turning to Green Arrow. "You still carry that Quantum Arrow in your quiver?"

"Sure. But what good is it going to do Diana?" The Arrow replied. "It can't hurt him."

"Fire it at Power Girl," Batman replied as he volleyed two exploding batarangs at Ruin to distract him from intercepting the arrow. "It might help all of us."

"You're crazy," Green arrow said in astonishment as he realized the magnitude of what his teammate was suggesting, then shrugged his shoulders with resignation. He notched and sighted the Quantum Arrow on Tea's prone figure across the room. "Better hope this works."

The Quantum Arrow's warhead went active as soon as the tail flights cleared the bow. The yellow energy warhead glowed hot as it flew across the room, landing with a thud in the bedding beneath Tea. Green Arrow cringed as he waited for an explosion, but nothing happened as the warhead fizzled out in the bed.

"Power Girl, can you hear me?" Batman whispered a moment later as he watched Diana and Superman bounce each other off the walls.

Tea's head popped up, bewildered that she could suddenly hear him. She nodded affirmatively as Ruin stalked his way back towards her. Nightwing launched a volley of exploding Birdarangs that distracted Ruin. He seemed unable to make a decision whether to finish them off or remove Power Girl to a different location.

"See if your heat vision can take out Ruin's keypad," Batman whispered. "Or any part of his armor for that matter."

"How can Power Girl hear you?" Green Arrow asked as he volleyed another flight of arrows towards Ruin. "I thought she was powerless under those red sunlamps."

"Her body is like a solar cell for yellow light energy," Batman replied as he produced a grapple from behind his belt. "She absorbed the energy from your Quantum Arrow like a sponge."

"Where are you going?" The Question asked as a set of heat beams suddenly emanated from Tea's position, slicing into Ruin's armor at his shoulder joint.

"I'm going to free Tea, then go after Ruin," Batman replied. "Cover me, then you three get Tea as far away from here as you can."

Batman fired his grapple into the ceiling above Ruin, toggling the retraction button at its maximum speed to pull him into the air from his covered position. Ruin stood perpendicular to him, still trying to ascertain the origin of the energy beams. Ruin's helmet tracked the location of the beams back to their source. Batman could see his opponent visibly agitated when Ruin realized that Power Girl was shorting out his defensive shields by slicing open his circuits with her heat vision.

Batman brought both feet into Ruin's head with his full force, but the weight of Ruin's armor meant that it was only a glancing blow. Batman landed on the floor next to Tea, rolling over on his shoulder to bleed away the momentum. He finally arrested his slide on the other side of Tea's bed, staying behind cover until Green Arrow and Nightwing began a fresh assault on Ruin with their own weapons. As soon as Ruin turned to face the oncoming threats, Tea renewed her own attack on his vulnerable joints. Ruin danced with frustration as he was outflanked by his enemies.

Batman reached up with an edged batarang to start slicing off her restraints. He hoped to remove Tea from the battle, but Superman's punch on Diana's jaw made him realize that he had to change his tactics.

"Can you help her?" Batman asked, nodding toward Diana. "She can't go toe to toe with him for much longer."

"I don't know if I can help much seeing I wasn't strong enough to remove these restraints," Power Girl replied doubtfully. "Shouldn't I keep attacking Ruin?"

"Target your heat vision on Superman's comm. link," Batman said gravely. "If you run out of power, get yourself as far away from here as you can."

"What are you going to do?" She asked, striding toward the corner where Superman and Wonder Woman were exchanging blows.

"Keep Ruin as far away from you as I can."

"That makes two of us," Nightwing chimed in as he touched down next to Tea. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek then glanced at his outfit molded to her taut frame. "Nice uniform."

"Thanks," she murmured, then kissed him hard on the lips. "My boyfriend gave it to me."

"You must be joking," Ruin taunted as Nightwing, Green Arrow and Batman converged upon his position in the middle of the room. "Not a single metahuman among you, yet you are going to take me on?"

Ruin didn't bother to wait for a reply from his opponents, launching a salvo of energy beams from his remaining weapons emitter at Batman and Nightwing. They effortlessly flipped, dodged and rolled to evade his energy blasts while the Green Arrow launched another warhead tipped arrow towards the panel on his left arm. Ruin blocked the arrow effortlessly, but he was tiring from this battle. His damaged armor and rapidly depleting energy reserves were at the forefront of his concerns. Ruin spied Power Girl on her feet, stalking Superman from behind as Diana attacked him from the front. Ruin could see by the height and narrow width of the beams that Galatea was targeting Superman's comm. link with her heat vision. Realizing the gravity of the situation if Superman returned to fight with his League teammates, Ruin locked his emitter on her chest, cycling the energy blast down to stun as he didn't want to kill her.

Ruin fired at Power Girl but he didn't see if the blast had connected with its target as a proximity warning light flashed on his heads up display that one of his opponents had flanked him. Ruin tried to turn around to keep his opponent off the more vulnerable armor on his back, but a small change in weight told him he was too late.

"And Black Canary still thinks a buzz-saw arrow is self-indulgent," Green Arrow muttered as his sliced through the exposed mesh-weave shoulder joints which Tea had earlier exploited with her heat vision.

Ruin screamed in frustration as a number of system failure warning lights flashed on his heads up display. He reached behind him with his left arm to pull Green Arrow off his back but Batman launched a bolo which wrapped around his neck and arm, pinning his arm against his helmet. Ruin brought his right arm up and managed to finally throw Green Arrow off his back, knocking him out against the ceiling. The Emerald Archer crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Ruin looked for another target, but Nightwing had anticipated Ruin's counterattack, launching another bolo which tied Ruin's right arm to his helmet.

Ruin screamed in frustration at being hog-tied so easily, and commanded the suit with an emergency override to send additional power to the servos and actuators which moved the hydraulics in his armor. The mechanisms groaned in protest as they exceed one-hundred twenty-five percent of their designed limits before finally snapping the cables. Another wave of exploding batarangs arrived a moment later. Ruin knocked down the incoming wave with another flurry of blasts from his emitter, but the system power cells were running below twenty percent.

Setting the defensive system on automatic to block any incoming batarangs, Ruin furiously looked for Galatea to see if he'd knocked her out with that last blast. Instead, Wonder Woman suddenly appeared in his view screen, streaking toward him with a pissed off snarl. Behind her, Superman was groaning on the floor. Smoke curled from his ear where Tea had finally fried his comm. link, but Superman was still conscious. Diana pressed her attack against Ruin, throwing a right cross that barely connected as Ruin's defensive systems reacted quickly enough to back him away. He ducked under the next punch and unleashed a snapshot from his weapons emitter which caught her squarely in the chest. Diana back-flipped twice before slamming into the opposite wall, landing on the floor with a loud thump.

Ruin scanned the room visually, and then switched to his infrared vision. He finally located Galatea's heat signature as she was crouching behind a mangled blast door. Ruin walked to her hidden position, unleashing another series of unaimed shots at Batman and Nightwing, who scattered around the room looking for cover. Ruin threw the door out of the way and found Tea. She was desperately looking for another avenue of escape but he had boxed her into the corner. Ruin extended his hand out to hers. Tea's eyes flashed with energy as she tried to power up another blast of her heat vision, but there was nothing left.

"Leave me alone, you freak!" she screamed.

"Time to go, Galatea." Ruin chided gently, grabbing her hand and pulling her in close. He started toward the open doorway, but Batman and Nightwing descended from their grapple lines, blocking his exit. Ruin debated about taking another series of shots at them, but his reduced power levels left him with dwindling options. He diverted some of his auxiliary power into his defensive systems in case they attacked, but Batman and Nightwing seemed content to delay his departure long enough for one of their super-powered teammates to take him down. As a precaution, he cycled his emitter to shoot a blast of kryptonite as it locked onto Galatea's figure.

"Even if you get past us, you can't win, Ruin." Batman intoned as he and his teammate reached into their uniforms for another set of weapons. "We'll hunt you and track you into whatever hole you crawl into the next time until you are out of options."

"I don't have to get past you to get away," Ruin replied, toggling his keypad again. "There are places even you in the Justice League are afraid to follow."

Behind Ruin, Superman and Wonder Woman were groggily making their way onto their feet. "Hamilton, what are you talking a…" Superman stammered, his eyes widening with alarm as he recognized the new energy signature pouring forth from the emitter.

"You should recognize it, Kal-El," Ruin gloated as the Phantom Zone doorway appeared next to Ruin and Galatea. "After all, your father invented it."

Nightwing stood with a birdarang ready in his hand, frozen as he waited for some direction from Batman. "What is it?" Nightwing whispered.

"The Phantom Zone," Batman replied. "Stay put or you might get sucked into the dimensional gravity well."

"A wise precaution, Batman," Ruin replied as he stepped forward toward the gateway, dragging Galatea along with him toward the dimensional rip. The emitter on his shoulder stopped fueling the opening to the gateway, however the dimensional rip remained open, waiting for something to pass through it before resealing.

Nightwing shifted forward as if to make a grab for her, but Tea waved off his attack with a shake of her head. "Don't do it, Dick. I'm not worth it."

"Of course you're worth it," Dick replied calmly as he launched a birdarang at the control panel on Ruin's wrist while simultaneously firing a grapple line at Tea. Ruin deflected the birdarang with the back of his arm then launched himself and Galatea into the dimensional rip. As the grapple wrapped around her waist, Dick set his feet and pulled hard on the cable. The weight of Ruin and Tea, along with the dimensional pull of the Phantom Zone, started to drag all of them into the porthole. Batman dove for Nightwing's legs, desperately trying to anchor his son from slipping into the trans-dimensional gateway. Diana sensed it would be a losing battle and did the same for Batman, wrapping herself around his legs to further anchor their position.

Ruin and Galatea spun around facing back towards Nightwing as the final inches of the grapple line paid out. Ruin's body was almost completely pulled into the Phantom Zone, however Ruin had firmly wrapped his arms around Tea, intent on pulling her in with him. They were suspended in the dimensional doorway as the grapple line kept them anchored in their own dimension, preventing the porthole from closing. Ruin seemed to sense this as his emitter swiveled on its gimble to target lock on Nightwing's grapple line, but Superman anticipated the blast and fried the emitter with his heat vision. Superman hoped that blasting the emitter would cause the gateway to collapse, but it remained open, waiting for something to pass through it.

Galatea squirmed with all of her might to escape from Ruin, but the hydraulic locks fueling his grip were too strong. "Don't let go!" She pleaded to Dick, a tear of frustration visible on her cheek as she fought to free herself. "I want to stay with you!"

Diana started pulling harder on Batman's legs; in turn he looped a grapple line through Dick's belt to secure their teammate. It seemed that they actually gained a few inches in the tug of war between the dimensions. Superman unleashed another volley of heat vision at Ruin, successfully cutting away through the anchor bolts which kept Ruin's helmet fixed to his suit. The helmet disappeared into the Phantom Zone, revealing Hamilton's haggard face. Despite his psychotic expression, he seemed to sense he was fighting a losing battle.

Unfortunately for Tea, Hamilton had one last card to play.

"You can have her body," Hamilton muttered as he keyed in one last sequence into his battered control panel. "But you can't have her mind. That part of her belongs to me. By the way, thank you for not removing her original neural inhibitor. It saved me the trouble of having to insert my own."

"Don't do it, Hamilton!" Superman yelled, but Tea's sudden scream of agony told him it was too late. Blood suddenly trickled from her nose, a moment later she went limp in Ruin's grip. Hamilton gazed upon Galatea with evident sorrow, then released his grip on her and fell away into the Phantom Zone. Superman rushed toward the gateway to retrieve him, but the interdimensional rip sealed itself as soon as it had consumed Ruin. The gateway vanished and Superman flew through thin air as Galatea's body collapsed to the floor underneath him.

Nightwing was at her side a moment later, kneeling on the ground. Gently, he turned over Galatea's body. Her eyes were open, but the spark of life was rapidly fading away. Nightwing pulled off his glove and ran his hand over her cheek, hoping against hope that the damage wasn't irreparable.

Galatea stared up at Nightwing, a small smile appearing in the corner of her mouth. Blood was pouring from her nose. He tried to wipe it away, but there was too much for him to stem the flow. All he could do was cradle her in his arms.

"Don't leave me," he whispered as he could see her eyes focus on a point on the ceiling above him.

"I'm already there," she replied, her eyes going completely vacant as she whispered the last word.

Superman put his hand on Nightwing's shoulder as he used his x-ray vision to scan Galatea's brain. "She's gone, Dick. Ruin did something to her neural inhibitor. Must have caused an aneurysm. "

"But she's still has a pulse!" Dick protested. "How can you be so sure?"

"I can see the damage," Superman replied with a hitch in his voice. "It's pretty bad."

"We have to stop the bleeding! How can we stop the bleeding?" Nightwing asked frantically.

"I can cauterize the artery, but she's already bled out too much already," Superman replied, staring intently at Galatea's injury. "I can stop it, but there's a good chance that I'll just make it worse."

"Do it!" Nightwing commanded. "It's better than the alternative."

Superman looked around to see if any of his teammates understood the gravity of what Nightwing was asking him to do. Batman nodded imperceptibly, enough for Superman to know that he thought it was worth the effort. Superman bent down, then moved her head to the best angle possible, then slowly burned a tiny hole into her temporal lobe with his heat vision until he cauterized the artery that was causing her brain to bleed to death. The smell of the hot dura mater was almost too much to bear, but he finished cauterizing the injury to the best of his abilities.

Superman stood up, sighing at the gravity of what he'd just done. "She'll live, but I don't know whether she's going to have any higher brain functions."

"Maybe Zatanna, or Doctor Fate can help her heal?" Diana asked, but there was no real hope in her suggestion.

"Let's get everyone back to the Watchtower," Batman commanded, but the quaver in his voice belied his own pain over Tea's injury. He put his hand on Dick's shoulder, who was now cradling Galatea's limp body in his arms. "We'll see if the EKG shows any sign of promise."

EPILOGUE:

Superman walked out of the Monitor Womb, having finished a quick debriefing session with Mr. Terrific, who the Inner Council had unanimously picked a week before to join their ranks as the newest voting member. He strode to the commissary, deciding that he needed a quick bite before returning to Metropolis. He exchanged brief but polite greetings with a number of regular and auxiliary members who'd supplemented the ranks of the League since its original formation five years before.

He was looking forward to stretching out on his couch and watching the Mets host the Dodgers. Lois was coming over. She'd grown up in Brooklyn and was an avid Dodgers fan like her father. Even though they'd relocated to Los Angeles years before, she was surprisingly vociferous in her support of 'the Bums' as she called them.

At the buffet, Superman filled his plate with chicken marsala and a greek salad. He scanned the room, looking for other members of the Inner Council. None of them had really ever discussed how they always sat apart from the rest of the Leaguers. It wasn't a conscious choice, but they'd formed such a powerful bond during the formative years of the League that was a hard habit to break. He sighed with regret when he realized he'd have to find an empty table or join one of the associate members whom he barely knew. The empty tables looked preferable to the choices available when Superman spied Green Arrow out of the corner of his eye sitting with Black Canary. The Arrow nodded an invitation at the empty seat at their table. Superman nodded and strode over to their table, but Black Canary was on her feet as he arrived at the table.

"Don't get up on account of me!" Superman protested.

"It's time I made my way home. Besides, I've got a run in my stockings," Dinah Lance pouted, showing a small tear down her fishnet stockings. "Cleaning the rest of that Tweaker Gang out of Bludhaven has been a pain."

"Thanks for the extra patrols in Bludhaven," he nodded appreciatively. "I know Nightwing has needed the help."

"That's why we have the League," Dinah replied, a look of compassion for Nightwing's situation evident on her face. "I feel so bad for him. For both of them, actually."

"It's been tough on all of us," Superman admitted. Dinah kissed Ollie tenderly on the lips, waved a quick goodbye to Superman, then she spun on her heels. Superman sat down at the table across from Green Arrow.

"You're a lucky man, Ollie." Superman noted with a raised eyeblrow they watched Dinah turn the corner out of the commissary into the connecting corridor.

"Thanks, but it's hard to remember that sometimes." Green Arrow replied.

"I know what you mean," Superman commiserated. "As much good as the League has done these past five years, there are sometimes feel like its more of a curse than a blessing."

"You can't be serious. A curse?" Ollie asked, taken aback. "How so?"

Superman paused to find the right words for what he was thinking. "What happened to Tea occurred because I was brainwashed by Darkseid years ago. My invasion of Earth with his Parademons was the reason Hamilton joined Cadmus. In fact, it was the reason Cadmus was formed in the first place."

"Cadmus existed in some form or another long before you went rogue," The Question observed with a whisper over Superman's shoulder. Superman turned around to face his conspiracy-loving colleague, taking a quick peek at Q's injured shoulder with his x-ray vision. Most of the damage appeared to be healing up nicely, though his arm was still in a sling. Q sat down next to Superman, sloshing a few drops of coffee on the table in the process. "Since the time of the Pharoahs, there has always been a secret society lurking in the shadows, waiting to exploit any opportunity to increase their power."

Superman looked at The Question dubiously, but the Arrow nodded in support of his teammate. "Q's right, Clark. You can't blame your brainwashed invasion as the reason Hamilton became Ruin. I think Hamilton already had one foot over the edge when he joined Cadmus. He was just looking for a reason to jump."

Superman shook his head dismissively. "I never saw any evidence of that during all that time I worked with him."

"So maybe you're not as good at reading people as you'd like to be," The Question observed. "But even a telepath would have had a hard time figuring out what made Hamilton tick. From what I saw at the end, he was a classic paranoid schizophrenic."

"Whatever he turned into, Tea still paid the price for it," Superman noted with a heavy sigh. "Kara almost died during my invasion, then I really did lose her to some fifth generation time-traveling Brainiac. Now Power Girl pays the price for my sins again. I know what you're both trying to say. I appreciate it, I really do, but sometimes I feel like the price of wearing this cape is too high."

He pushed his plate away with the food still untouched. Talking about Tea ruined his appetite.

"Where are you off to?" Green Arrow asked.

"To the Fortress. Maybe there's something in the medical database that I missed."

Batman sat at his console in the Batcave, entering the last pieces of evidence of an unsolved murder which had occurred two weeks before in Gotham around the same time the League had been battling Ruin. The victim, a twenty year-old female, had two priors for drug possession, so all the evidence pointed to a standard drug-deal gone wrong, but Batman wasn't convinced it was so routine.

"What are you working on?" Diana's voice floated out of the dark expanses of the Cave. She emerged from the gloom a moment later, wearing one of his robes that she'd made her own. Not that he minded as he took in the way black silk molded to her curves.

"A murder down in the Haight district," he replied, nodding to the gruesome photos displayed on the overhead monitor.

"You take them all personally, don't you?" Diana asked, nodding in sudden understanding of what had fueled the Dark Knight's obsession for so many years.

"It's hard not to," He admitted. "No one deserves to have their life taken away by someone else's hand."

"You don't handle loss very well. You haven't been sleeping well since we lost Galatea," Diana noted with concern. She pulled his cowl back and ran her fingers gingerly through his hair, massaging his scalp gently to help ease his pain.

Bruce looked into her eyes and noticed the slight puffiness and red that rimmed the bright blue iris. "I'm not the only one, Princess. You've been crying again."

Diana stiffened but didn't pull her hands away. "Amazons are warriors trained to deal with death. We are told not mourn a death, only celebrate their life."

She was the world's worst liar and he knew it irked her pride that she couldn't help shedding tears over Galatea. "Yes, but she was your first apprentice. You trained her and spent a lot of time with her. It's only natural that you feel the loss."

She closed her eyes briefly and he knew she was controlling more tears that wanted to fall. She opened them and said with a raised eyebrow, "I guess it is no worse than not sleeping." She laid her had on his cheek.

"Sleep is overrated anyway," Batman replied with a grunt, putting his own hand over hers.

"Have you talked to Dick?" Diana asked. "How is he doing?"

"He's transported up to the Watchtower after every shift in Bludhaven for the past two weeks," Batman replied with a grunt. "He's in it for the long haul, though. He spends his free time reading the Aubrey/Maturin series to her from her bedside. It's a twenty-book series, so it's going to take awhile."

"Do you think it will help?" Diana asked. "The EKG showed no brain activity at all."

"It can't hurt," Batman sighed. "She lost a lot of blood and had a brain bleed. But then again, comas are pretty tricky. Plus she is Kryptonian so who knows if the differences in her physiology will make a difference. Maybe the yellow radiation lamps will help. There are recorded cases of patients emerging from comas like hers who remembered every bedside visit. All we can do is wait and hope she comes out of it."

"Arrow told me that Kal is going through the Kryptonian database looking for something that might help."

"The one who might have been able to help her unfortunately is lost forever in the Phantom Zone," Bruce said in a cold voice. Too bad psychos like Ruin always seemed to turn up like a bad penny.

"Do you have any faith in her recovery, honestly?" Diana asked as she sat down on his lap, nestling her head in the crook of his neck. Bruce turned his head and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

"I don't need to have any faith as long as I have you, Princess." Batman replied as he lifted his head and toggled a switch on the keyboard, which showed Dick reading to Galatea from the Watchtower infirmary. "But Dick is convinced she's going to pull through, so maybe his faith is enough for all of us."

Suffocating, merciless fog. Thoughts clouded, jumbled, incoherent. Somewhere in the mist she heard a male voice intone… "'God knows I should do the same again, said Jack, leaning on the helm to close her, the keen spray stinging his tired, reddened eyes. But I feel I need the whole sea to clean me'. That's the end of Chapter three, Tea. I'm going to get some sleep now. I will see you tomorrow."

She tried to focus on the voice, but the fog rolled in again, unrelenting in its grip.

THE END


End file.
